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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE BATTLE OF THE BEARS 



r 




The Battle of the Bears 

Life in the North Land 



BY 

EGERTON R. YOUNG 

Author of " Hector My Dog," " By Canoe and Dog 
Train,'' " My Dogs in the North Land,'' etc. 



Illustrated by 

the author's photographs and 

pen and ink drawings 




W. A. WILDE COMPANY 
BOSTON CHICAGO 






URHARYof COhBRESS 

Two CoDies Received 

AUG 29 '90/' 

/ CooyncW Entry 
CLAS;J4^ ' XXc, l|(0. 



Copyrighted, igoj 

By W. a, Wilde Company 

All rights reserved 



The Battle of the Bears 



INTRODUCTION 

THE irresistible onward march of civili- 
zation into the remotest solitudes of the 
northern regions of this American con- 
tinent, long vaguely known as the Hudson Bay 
territories, makes it necessary that what is done 
to retain a knowledge of the former days and 
the life lived in those wilderness places, must 
be done quickly. Soon the shriek of the steam- 
whistle will be heard where the howling of the 
wolves and the whoofs of the bears have been 
for ages almost the only startling sounds, while 
on many of the lakes and rivers, steamboats and 
yachts are already taking the place of the grace- 
ful canoe and the once indispensable dog train 
is being crowded still farther north. 

In this volume it has been a source of great 
pleasure to the author to gather up and put on 
record some of these unique scenes which will 
soon be of a past generation, and he hopes that 
they will also be of interest to many readers. 



CONTENTS 



I. 


The Battle of the Bears . 


. 11 


n. 


The Eace foe the Shirts 


. 25 


TTT. 


The Call and Journey to the Norte 
Land 


[ 

45 


IV. 


Introducing My Dogs . 


61 


V. 


Dog Travelling in the North Land 


69 


VL 


The Winter Camp in the Snow . 


83 


VII. 


Shoeing the Dogs 


97 


VIII. 


The Famous Indian Guides . 


. 115 


IX. 


Indian Boys and Girls at School 


129 


X. 


The Old Indian in the Infant Class 


145 


XI. 


A Dinner of Potatoes Versus Theei 
Sermons 


155 


XII. 


Ploughing with Dogs . 


. 171 


XIII. 


The Birch Bark Canoe 


. 187 


XIV. 


My Most Exciting Canoe Trip . 


. 201 


XV. 


Some Indian Characteristics 


. 217 



8 



Contents 



XVI. Life in the Wigwams .... 229 

XVII. Splendid as well as Amusing Prog- 
ress 243 

XVm. The Indian Hunter as a Comrade . 255 

XIX. Why I Gave the Marriage Feast . 271 

XX. The Sign Language and Pictography 283 

XXI. Indian Credulity and Incredulity . 301 

XXII. Indian Honesty or the Story of Koos- 

TAWIN 319 

XXIII. The Indian's Future and the White 

Man's Duty 335 




ILLUSTRATIONS 



Our Eskimo Dogs 



. Frontispiece 
. 68 



The Story of the Discovery of the 
Cached Fish . . .28"^ 

The Challenge . . . 36' 



Feeding the Dogs During the 
Summer . . . . 

A Dog Sled and a Good 
Road 

Running the Rapids of a 
Northern River 



74" 



90 



192 



Making Camp for the Night 194 
Indian Buffalo Wigwams . i 
Stories in Pictography . 294 




CHAPTER ONE 
The Battle of the Bears 



Canoeing with the Indians. Signs of Bears. Clever fisherman. 
First sight of our bear. Method of approach. The family of 
bears. The terrible battle. The death. A new family arrange- 
ment. 



CHIST ! Oomah ! Look there ! " 
Thus whispered Curleyhead in two 
languages. 

My gazing had been in another direction and 
so before I could see what had excited my In- 
dian canoemen, they had arrested the onward 
movement of our canoe and had paddled back 
behind a great rock. 

" What is the matter now ? " I asked, for from 
my lack of alertness or duller vision I had failed 
to observe anything unusual. But these keen- 
eyed hunters, whose very existence often de- 
pended upon their alertness, had caught the one 
glimpse for which they had been eagerly look- 
ing. It was that of a great black bear far ahead 
of us, sunning himself on the shore. 

We had had signs of bear during the last two 
or three days. Not only were there numerous 
tracks on the sandy shores of the different lakes 
and rivers, but at several points where the 
white-fish, pike, mullets, goldeyes, and other 
fish are abundant in the waters, we found the 
flat rocks on which the bears seat themselves 
and from which with a good deal of skill and 

13 



14 The Battle of the Bears 

cleverness, they succeed in throwing out of the 
water numbers of the finny tribe. 

Bears are very fond of fish, but are more or 
less fastidious in eating them, according to the 
quantity they capture. When a bear goes fish- 
ing, he does not generally, unless ravenously 
hungry, at once eat the first fish he captures. 
If he thinks he has secured a spot where his 
sharp, keen eyes, even if they are small ones, 
tell him that fish are plentiful to-day, he pa- 
tiently continues at his task sometimes for 
hours, until he has skilfully thrown a goodly 
number of them out on the shore. His prefer- 
ence among all, is the delicious whitefish. If 
at one trial he is fortunate enough to catch a 
number of them, he is so dainty in his tastes 
that he will bite out and eat only the rich, oily 
part of the fish, just back of the head. If he 
has not caught a sufficient number to furnish 
him with a hearty meal on those favorite parts, 
he then eats the next best portions. 

If, as often happens, his fishing luck has been 
poor, and he has caught but few, he greedily 
devours them all, with perhaps the exception of 
a head or two, and may be some tails and bones. 

Thus it is that the Indian hunters, as they 
find the various places where the bears have 
been fishing and then dining, can always tell 



The Battle of the Bears 15 

by the remains of the dinner what success they 
have had in their last fishing at that spot. 

As I have mentioned, the watchful, experi- 
enced eyes of my Indians had detected several 
of these fishing rocks and dining-rooms of the 
bear, during our canoeing of the previous days, 
and so this early morning they were on the alert 
for the sight of the clever bears themselves. 
And now, sure enough, here was one of them, 
and a fine, handsome fellow he was, as, noise- 
lessly gliding round the shoulder of the big 
rock, we surveyed him at our leisure. My 
telescope, which made my vision about equal to 
that of the Indians with their naked eyes, en- 
abled me to see him perfectly, as, after his 
night's rest, he rolled himself about lazily in 
the sand, at that earl^^^ morning hour, like a 
great black Newfoundland dog. He was evi- 
dently in^'good humor and not hungry, and my 
men said, as they watched him, that he must 
surely be the bear whose fishing rock we had 
found the previous evening not many miles in 
our rear. As a matter of precaution, bears do 
not generally sleep near where they have been 
fishing even if they have left there some fish 
that they could not devour at one meal. 

They prefer their fish fresh, in the season, 
and have found out, too, that other fish-loving 



1 6 The Battle of the Bears 

animals, unable to supply their own wants, are 
apt to scent their prey. So, having satisfied 
themselves, and preferring peace to provision 
for future need, they generally go some distance 
away before they find a cozy spot Vv^here they 
cuddle down like a dog. 

Contrary as it may seem to the impression of 
many, the black bear is naturally a peaceful 
animal, and does not generally begin a quarrel, 
unless he has some good reason for it. He is 
timid and alert and harder to approach than a 
deer. Meet him unexpectedly on a trail in the 
forest and he is as frightened as you are, and 
unless he is provoked by your wounding him, 
for he is very quick tempered, or encouraged by 
a great display of cowardice on your part, you 
will find him delighted with any reasonable ex- 
cuse for retiring from your presence with all the 
alertness possible consistent with his ideas of 
safety. 

For some time we watched the bear's antics, 
as he rolled himself about in the warm sand and 
then by way of variation sat u]) on his haunches, 
and with his fore paws struck at the deer-flies 
and similar pests, that worried him. Lest we 
should be discovered, or our presence even sus- 
pected by him, we again drew back behind the 
rock. There my men discussed the best means 



The Battle of the Bears 17 

for his capture. I mildly protested against the 
delay, saying that a half day at least would be 
lost, and urging the fact that game more agreea- 
ble to our taste than bear's meat had been so 
abundant that our canoe was well filled with the 
choicest of meat. I added that even if they did 
succeed in killing him, his skin would not be 
nearly so valuable now as it would be some 
months hence in the colder weather. 

When my words and requests were emphatic, 
they were always listened to by my Indians, 
and promptly carried out. But to-day they 
seemed to lack the snap which always brought 
prompt compliance and these men, quick to 
read me, said, with the merest twinkle of the 
eye: 

" Ookemou (master), wish to go on, or see a 
bear hunt?" When there is a disposition to 
surrender, we are easily conquered. I capitu- 
lated and said, " Well, show me a first-class one, 
and be quick about it." 

The first thing they did was to withdraw the 
charges of duck shot from their guns and reload 
them with bullets. Their flint guns will throw 
a ball about a hundred yards, as well as an 
ordinary rifle. My Martini-Henry rifle was 
charged with a fresh cartridge, while my men 
gave a quick glance at their sheath knives to 



1 8 The Battle of the Bears 

see that they were in perfect condition, for in a 
bear fight no one knows what may happen. 

The next thing now was to get near that bear. 
This was no easy matter. Such was the nature 
of the muskegs, or swamp, behind him that 
there was no possibility of getting at him, in the 
rear. There was, however, a small rocky island 
not more than sixty or seventy yards from the 
sandy beach on which he was now resting. The 
Indians, knowing the restless nature of bears, 
said that it was hardly likely he would remain 
here very long, but they would try, anyway, a 
scheme that might possibly work. We began at 
once to carry it out. 

We paddled back a little farther up the river 
and then quietly landed on the shore, on the op- 
posite side of the river. From the place where 
we landed we made a portage, by carrying our ca- 
noe and its contents along in the forest, parallel 
to the river, but well out of sight and scent of 
the bear. When directly opposite that little 
island, which was now between us and him, we 
noiselessly launched and loaded our canoe, and 
quietly paddled across the river. 

Hardly had we landed and secured our canoe 
and taken possession of our guns, before we 
heard the angry "Woof! Woof!" of the bear. 
Thinking that in some way or other, he had got 



The Battle of the Bears 19 

knowledge of us, we crouched flat on the ground. 
My Indians were surprised and perplexed. The 
wind was dead in our faces, so he had not got 
any scent of us, and they were sure they had 
made no noise that could have been heard. We 
lay low and waited. But we had not long to 
wait. The "Woof! Woofs!" were repeated 
again and again, so Curleyhead, our most expe- 
rienced bear hunter, quietly crawled forward to 
see what was the matter. 

As the ominous sounds continued we waited 
with some impatience for his return. The gleam 
of the hunter was in his eye, when noiseless, 
like a snake, he crawled between us and reported 
what he had seen. His story was that the bear 
was still about where he had first observed him 
on the sand, and that coming slowly towards 
him was a family of black bears, consisting of 
the father and mother and a couple of cubs, 
about four or five months old. It was evident 
by the way the two male bears were snarling 
at each other that they were enemies, perhaps 
had been rivals, and anyway a big fight would 
doubtless soon take place. He added, from his 
experience of bears' battles, that as they were 
now so wild at each other they would not be so 
alert in watching against other enemies. 

" We can carefully get higher up among the 



20 The Battle of the Bears 

rocks and see the battle, and then fire when we 
think best. But," he added, " be very care- 
ful, for that old mother bear may act as sentinel 
and discover us, if we give her a chance." 

Strange, is it not, how some things excite us ! 
Do what I would, I could not keep m}^ heart 
from loud thumping or my breath from coming 
fast and hard. Christian or heathen, what is it 
in us, that at the prospect of such a fight, throws 
us into such agitation ! It was not any idea of 
danger, for here on this island, heavily armed, 
we were absolutely safe. If those bears got one 
sight or scent of us, they would rush away as 
speedily as the most timid deer. Yet here I 
was, strung up with this almost uncontrollable 
excitement, as, holding on to my rifle, I carefully 
crawled along under cover of the rocks ahead. 
We reached our points of observation before the 
battle began. 

It was evident, Curleyhead whispered to me, 
that they were old fighters who had met before, 
as, like experienced gladiators, each seemed to 
wait for an unguarded moment on the part of the 
other. 

In the meantime the mother bear had settled 
down on her haunches on the sand, in utter in- 
difference to the fight. When either of her cubs, 
as they frolicked and wrestled with each other, 



The Battle of the Bears 21 

happened to come near her, she seemed to de- 
light to give it a cuff that tumbled it over in the 
sand. 

Warily moving around on their hind legs, the 
two great bears kept up their growlings, evi- 
dently getting more angry and exasperated with 
each other, but each loth to begin the conflict. 
Curleyhead, as we called him, but whose right 
name was Mache-que-quo-nape, was crouched 
close beside me, and a quiet laugh from him al- 
most startled me, while he whispered : 

" Those old bears are just jawing each other. 
They both wanted the same wife. They had a 
big fight once before about her, and as one bear, 
in the fight, got a bad bite that made him lame, 
the other fellow ran off with her. We In- 
dians," added Curleyhead, " say that the bear, 
because his paw is so like the hand, has a little 
human in him, and so there those two bears are 
scrapping just like two men about a woman." 
And again he chuckled quietly to himself, for 
he had had his own troubles. 

I know not how much more of this quaint 
Indian lore I should have heard if it had not 
been abruptly brought to a close, for now the two 
bears suddenly sprang at each other, and were 
locked in the terrible embraces of their great 
muscular arms. It was an awful struggle and 



22 The Battle of the Bears 

even my seasoned Indians could not keep from 
being intensely excited. Standing on their hind 
feet, and wary, the bears struggled in the greatest 
wrestling match imaginable. The grip they had 
on each other was what the boys call a " back 
hold," and of equal advantage, as each bear had 
one fore arm under, and the other over his op- 
ponent. As they put forth their enormous 
strength, it did not seem to us that their efforts 
were so much directed to the attempt to down 
each other as to try to squeeze out the very life. 
The power of the hug of a bear has enlivened 
and electrified many a yarn, and has, in reality, 
to many a poor hunter been his death or nearly 
so. And now to watch two great muscular, full- 
grown bears, full of jealous hate, practicing 
these hugs on each other, — well it was a sight 
but seldom seen. 

Strange to say, up to this time they had not 
used their teeth much. Both seemed to hope 
that the hug trick would do its work. But as, 
carefully balancing themselves on their hind 
feet which they kept wide apart, they continued 
the desperate struggle, both seemed to realize 
that some other method of fighting was neces- 
sary, and in addition they were horribly en- 
raged. So in a short time they began vigor- 
ously to tear with their teeth at each other's 



The Battle of the Bears 23 

head and neck, as well as they could without 
for a moment letting go their grip. 

Tough as bearskin is, it could not stand this 
very long, and so the end came suddenly. All 
at once we noticed that the great fore arms of 
the father bear fell limp by his sides and then 
he quickly sank on the sands. The other bear, 
loosening his grip, watchfully stood over him as 
though suspecting a trick, but as there was no 
movement beyond some convulsive jerkings he 
drew back a yard or two and watched him to 
his death. Then he moved away to the female 
bear and her cubs. A little conversation, and 
some mutual explanation, doubtless took place, 
and then they began moving away. 

My Indians wanted to fire at them, but I 
positively forbade them. " Fire your guns to 
hurry them off, but do not hit them," I said, 
and raising my own rifle I started the music by 
sending my bullet close enough to make the 
sand fly near them. The Indians also fired, and 
away sped a newly organized or reorganized 
bear family. 

We hurried back to our canoe, and when we 
reached the dead bear we found that his op- 
ponent with his sharp teeth had cut through his 
jugular vein. So he had bled until exhausted, 
and thus fell on the sand as we saw him. 



CHAPTER TWO 
The Race for the Shirts 



Securing supplies with dogs. Three heavy trains given three days' 
start. A stern chase and a long one. Pictographic signs. Clever 
and shrewd Indians. Thievish wolves. Eapid travelling. The 
smoke signal. The signs on the rock. A close race. New shirts 
for all. 



II 

ONE winter, having a large number of 
dogs and being very short of food in 
our northern home, I took with me five 
trains of dogs and went into what was then 
known as the Red River Settlement for sup- 
plies. When the loads were secured, I sent on 
ahead the three sleds that were most heavily 
loaded and remained behind to attend to some 
business matters keeping with me the two 
swiftest dog trains and much lighter loads. 

In sending on ahead the three Indian dog 
drivers with their heavy loads, we told them 
that we would travel very rapidly and hoped to 
overtake them before they reached home. We 
gave them orders to leave plenty of pictographic 
signs of their progress, especially to let us know 
if the weather kept fine and of their location 
each day at midday. These signs, when discov- 
ered by my men, as we rapidly followed, would 
be of interest to us, as they would tell us how 
much we were gaining on the trains ahead. At 
the camps made each night they were to leave 
fuller pictographic signs, giving us any informa- 
tion needed. These, however, we did not always 

27 



28 The Battle of the Bears 

see, as we travelled so much faster than they did. 
At the end of our second day, having gained one 
day on them, we reached the camp where they 
had spent their third night. Here we found an 
elaborate account made in pictography on a birch 
tree (as shown in drawing I) telling us that their 
supply of fish, which had been cached here on 
the down trip, had been discovered and devoured 
by wolves or wolverines. To their regret they 
had been obliged to feed the dogs out of the 
meat supplies which were being carried out for 
the mission. 

As their camp had not been spoiled by any 
storm or blizzard we at once took possession of it. 
All we had to do was to cut a fresh supply of 
wood and kindle up the camp-fire, feed our dogs, 
prepare our own suppers, say our prayers and 
roll ourselves up in camp-beds and go to sleep. 
These things we promptly attended to, for we 
knew that now, with their sleds so much light- 
ened by what the dogs, as well as the men them- 
selves, were eating, th<^y would travel the more 
rapidly and so be the more difficult to catch. If 
the sailor's proverb that a stern chase is a long 
chase, is true on sea, it is equally so on a four 
hundred miles' race on the ice, in the cold and 
bitter winter. 

That night as we sat round the fire while my 




4 ..## m^:^ /?;a _ 






(Drawing I) 
The Story of the Discovery of the Cached Fish 



The Race for the Shirts 29 

men were having their last pipe, one of the In- 
dians said in his quiet way : — 

'' I think surely the men ahead of us will now 
try hard to get their new flannel shirts." 

" What do you mean ? " I asked, feigning ig- 
norance, for I had tried to keep from these two 
Indians with me, the fact of a promise quietly 
made to the drivers of the dog sleds ahead, 
that if they could reach our home first, they 
would each be thus rewarded. 

With a quick searching look in my face, for it 
came out later that he was only feeling his 
ground, he said : — 

" O not much, Ookemou. But the night be- 
fore they started when we were all sleeping or 
trying to, in that one big room, I heard one of 
them who talks in his sleep, say : — ' Shirts, fine 
new shirts, one new shirt apiece, ho ! ho ! ' Then 
he went asleep and said no more. Then I began 
thinking. What does he mean? So I remem- 
ber when Jack was nearly drowned when he 
broke through the thin ice in the lake and the 
water turned so soon to ice, Ookemou said, * A 
good new flannel shirt to the man first to the 
woods to build a fire to save Jack ! ' and I got 
that shirt. 

" So as I lay there thinking it over, that man 
in his sleep saying, * new flannel shirt,' it comes 



30 The Battle of the Bears 

to me that our Ookemou to make those men 
hurry up and go fast, has made some promise to 
them." 

Then his eyes, with a quick glance, searched 
me again as though he would read me to find 
out if this surmise were correct. 

I confess that I have not the powers of an In- 
dian to wear the mask of self-control as he can, 
and so, with a laugh, I had to admit that he had 
guessed the truth, that to encourage those men 
ahead of us to push on as rapidly as possible, they 
would be thus rewarded if they succeeded in 
reaching home before us. 

" But what about us? " he asked. 

" A good new shirt apiece for j^ou both if you 
will catch them before we reach home," was my 
impulsive reply. 

" Ookemou ! " they both came as near shout- 
ing as Indians can. " We will get those shirts." 

The dogs were called up and each given an 
extra half of a whitefish. This, with the two 
already given, was a fine supper indeed. 

Then by the light of our blazing camp-fire the 
Indians secured the wood needed for the early 
breakfast which would be prepared and eaten 
long before daylight. The dog harness was all 
carefully looked over and even the place where 
each dog was now sleeping, was noted. 



The Race for the Shirts 31 

I was quickly tucked away under my blankets 
and robes with Jack, my great St. Bernard, at 
my back, and Cuffy, a thoroughbred Newfound- 
land, at my feet. As the men gave the finish- 
ing touches to the tucking-me-in process, one of 
them said : 

" Not very long sleep here this time ! Ooke- 
mou will finish it in his cariole." 

What a blessed thing sleep is ! And under 
what varied conditions it comes and soothes us 
away into its refreshing oblivion. Thus it was 
here. Out in the wintry forest, with the tem- 
perature not less than thirty or forty below zero, 
no roof above me, lying in a hole dug with 
snow-shoes out of the show, with dogs and Indi- 
ans around me, yet I slept as well as though in 
a mansion. 

In a few hours, I was aroused by the Indians. 
So soundly had I slept that I had not heard 
them until I was called. Yet they had arisen, 
built up the fire and had breakfast ready for us 
all. No time was lost. The promise of the new 
shirts was in their thoughts. When breakfast 
and prayers were over, the sled was soon loaded. 
In my cariole were placed my robes, so arranged 
that I could stretch out, and being well wrapped 
up could go to sleep if I so desired. 

Voyageur was then in his prime. He had 



32 The Battle of the Bears 

known since we had left the settlement that we 
were homeward bound, and so he scorned the 
guide ahead of him. Jack. and CufFy and Muff 
were behind him. It was a magnificent train, 
and the one that drew our provision sled was 
not much inferior. Thus equipped, the race for 
those flannel shirts began. On such a rapid trip 
I had not expected or intended to do much 
travelling on foot myself. To keep up with 
such men and trains, was an utter impossibility. 
If our two sleds had been as heavily loaded as 
were the others, and our rate of travelling had 
been only fifty or sixty miles a day, I would 
have travelled at least half the time on foot. 
But here on this rapid route I rode nearly all 
the time. Indeed, the only times I ran was 
when I became so cold that I needed some 
vigorous exercise to warm up the blood and send 
it tingling through my veins. Then when we 
stopped on some point to lunch, I would, as 
soon as the meal was over, hurry on ahead until 
overtaken. 

The stars were shining brightly as we glided 
out on the trail that had been made by my 
other trains two days before. In that time the 
packed snow had hardened like ice. My dogs 
must have caught the lingering scent of their 
comrades, as they were so wild to follow up the 



The Race for the Shirts 33 

trail. The Indian driving my cariole, in which 
I was snugly wrapped in my robes, had a good 
deal of difficulty in preventing an upset, ere we 
emerged from the forest on to the icy surface 
of the great lake. When once on the lake, how- 
ever, he had but little work to do except to be 
on the alert for open cracks, which are one of 
the great dangers and most difficult to guard 
against, especially at night. But Voyageur was 
at the head, and my men were alert and 
watchful. So, dismissing all fears, I soon fell 
asleep to the lullaby music of the silvery dog 
bells. 

When I was aroused by my driver, it was to 
be informed that a second breakfast was ready 
and that we were thirty miles from where we 
had slept. The sun was just flooding the beau- 
tiful landscape of lake and fir-clad rocky islands, 
with its glorious morning rays. A good break- 
fast of civilized food was speedily eaten and then 
while my men were taking their last cups of tea 
and eating everything that was left of the break- 
fast, I hurried on ahead as fast as I could run. 
But I had not been on the way very long be- 
fore I was overtaken. Into my cariole and 
among the robes, they again speedily tucked 
me ; then on and on we sped. Before noon we 
found the pictographs telling us that the day's 



34 The Battle of the Bears 

travel of our party ahead was nearly ended, and 
that this was their fourth day. 

So we hurried on and found their camp ; and 
there we had our dinner, where they had slept 
two nights before. Thus by twelve o'clock we 
had travelled as far as they had in the whole 
day. 

" I think we will wear those flannel shirts 
yet ! " the men chuckled, as they thought of 
their splendid progress. No fish had been left 
here on our down trip, as this was not the usual 
camping place. So we found nothing in the 
shape of pictography here. 

With renewed zeal the journey was resumed. 
The sleds of our men ahead were getting lighter 
and so their progress would be more rapid. 
They had left no marked indicators for our 
guidance, telling how early they had left. My 
shrewd men said, "To judge by the way they 
had to wander about in the snow looking for 
some rascally dogs that would not come when 
called, it must have been long before sun- 
rise." 

My Indians, however, resolved if possible to 
reach their camp even if they only had the 
shorter half of the day in which to do it. They 
made a gallant attempt, but it could not be 
done. We found no sign. Their zeal cooled 



The Race for the Sliirts 35 

considerably when we struck the pictography 
(drawing II) in the snow, about five o'clock in 
the afternoon. This one told us that the party 
had reached that headland and there had had 
dinner. What galled my drivers was that in 
addition to the usual pictographic record of their 
trip, there were three men roughly pictured on 
the storm-swept side of a smooth granite rock, 
each holding in his hand a big shirt. 

Those with me were wild to hurry on, for 
here was a direct challenge from the men ahead, 
who had now thrown to the winds all secrecy 
in reference to the shirts. I had to interfere 
and say : " We will sleep here. I cannot allow 
you to hurt yourselves, or my valuable dogs to 
be over-driven. We have travelled eighty miles 
since we left our last night's camp. So we stop 
here. There is just light enough to make a 
camp. Get supper and then to bed, and we will 
be off as early as you like in the morning." 

They saw that I was right, and so without a 
murmur submitted and with a will began the 
preparation for the night camp. 

Many white men sneer at the Indian and call 
him indolent and lazy, but if any one of this 
class had been present and seen the way that 
these men, who had already run eighty miles, 
used their axes and prepared that camp they 



36 The Battle of the Bears 

would have been surprised. But few white men 
could have equalled them. 

It was not long ere I was seated on my buffalo 
robes before a roaring fire. The dogs were fed^ 
the supper cooked and much enjoyed. The stars 
came out one by one and the cold mysterious 
Auroras in ghostly forms flitted across the 
northern sky. The same careful overhauling 
was given to sleds and harness, and even the 
feet of the dogs were inspected. 

In a short time I was tucked away, com- 
pletely covered up in my robes. Some dogs 
cuddled down close to me, while my men 
wrapped themselves up in their rabbit skins. 
One of these robes, woven out of a hundred and 
twenty rabbit skins, is the warmest thing a man 
can sleep under. When rightly made it is 
lighter too than an ordinary blanket. 

" Breakfast is ready, sir ! " was a very early 
call. But to it I speedily responded, for I was 
bound to see fair play, and so would not un- 
necessarily delay my men. My preparations for 
breakfast were very few. Washing in the camp, 
when the cold is so intense, is unknown. It 
would be simply dangerous. 

The routine at the camp does not much vary, 
so I need not again go into details. Suffice to 
say we were soon off. We had gained a day and 









W r- 









•-rl ^Ask^rm 







"^"^llllll .^ifc J, 



,/;/ 



iS^^^lifeSSl^ 



(Drawing II) 
The Challenge 



The Race for the Shirts 37 

a-half, and here it was the fifth day and the 
journey more than half over. At Berens River 
we only delayed long enough to have a brief 
meal, while we gave the news and left the 
packet of letters and papers for the Hudson's 
Bay Company's post at that place. Here we 
learned that our head trains had slept there for 
a few hours the second night before and so were 
still over a day ahead of us. The Hudson's Bay 
officer said they were all well and eager to reach 
Norway House before us. 

Early in the afternoon we found their midday 
sign of their fifth day, and beside it the rough 
sketch of a dog on three feet. This meant that 
one dog was lame. This was an unfortunate 
thing for them, and I said so to my men. But 
they only chuckled : — " Flannel shirts sure." 
Our delay there was a short one, and then on we 
hurried. The sun had long set and the stars 
were shining, when Voyageur suddenly turned 
from the smooth icy lake in to the left and led us 
into the trail in the snow which had been made 
by our friends ahead of us. They had had to go in 
some distance ere they found a sheltered place 
for the camp, with abundance of dry wood. In 
the gloom of the forest into which the old dog 
had led us, it seemed to us so dark that I antici- 
pated anything but a pleasant time. But such 



38 The Battle of the Bears 

men as I had were equal to any emergency of 
this kind. They groped around in the deserted 
camp and soon found enough dry wood with 
which to start a small fire. By the light of this, 
abundance of wood was speedily secured, and 
soon we were at home. The dogs were fed'^nd 
went to sleep. They were feeling the effects of 
the long and rapid travelling. My men, how- 
ever, laughed and acted as though they were 
just beginning the trip. I did notice that both 
of them, after they had had their supper, stripped 
themselves and rubbed their muscular bodies in 
the snow ; then throwing their blankets over their 
backs they sat down so near the hot blazing fire 
that soon the steam rolled up from both of them. 
A quick, vigorous, dry rubbing followed and 
then after they had packed me in, they rolled 
themselves up in their rabbit blankets for a few 
hours of sleep. No pictographic signs were here. 
The men had not thought that we would turn 
in so far into the forest. But Voyageur had 
struck their trail and was not to be denied. 
Daylight found us passing one of the points near 
Poplar Point where one summer, when I was 
travelling in my canoe, some treacherous pagan 
Indians summoned us to the shore by the smoke 
sign. We were hurrying home and did not wish 
to be delayed, but these rascally fellows, v/ishing 



The Race for the Shirts 39 

to get a share of my supplies, made this distant 
smoke signal to call us to the shore. 

The signal is given by making a small fire of 
damp grass or weeds. When there is a dense 
smoke, but no flame, two persons hold a blanket 
over the fire until it bulges out with smoke. 
Then a sudden skilful jerk removes the blanket, 
and if there is no wind the smoke rises up in a 
globular or balloon shape. The blanket is at 
once replaced over the smoking flameless heat, 
and the process is repeated. Certain numbers of 
globes of smoke indicate certain things, as may 
be arranged. 

Now, however, we were in the depth of win- 
ter, and where then the waves rolled in their 
abundance, now the Frost King had so asserted 
his authority that there were several feet of solid 
ice under us. 

We had our dinner where our leaders had had 
a second breakfast, and well on in the afternoon 
we found the noon sign of the sixth day. This 
was the last indication of their progress that we 
were able to read in the snow, as the weather 
now changed. While it had been intensely cold 
nearly all the time since we had left the settle- 
ment, yet the sky was bright and clear, so the 
marks on the snow, as well as the camps, had 
all been as they had made them. But now a 



4© The Battle of the Bears 

storm assailed us. The strong wind whirled 
the snow in such eddies around us, that the trav- 
elling was most disagreeable. Fortunately it 
did not develop into a blizzard, so as to compel 
us to camp until it was over. Greater care was 
now exercised on our part, but to our delight we 
found that Voyageur was nearly always on the 
trail, which occasionally my men were able to 
detect, w^hen the wind swept the newly fallen 
snow away. 

Thus perseveringly we pushed on. I was 
catching the enthusiasm of my men, and when- 
ever possible ran until I was about tired out. 
Thinking that my zeal in running was much ap- 
preciated, my chagrin may be imagined when 
my driver said : — 

" Ookemou, please keep in your cariole, we 
want to get on fast." 

At Montreal Point we found the fire of the 
party ahead still burning. 

" Only four hours ahead of us," said my men 
as they examined the tire. 

The storm had completely abated, and as the 
dogs had long since caught the hot scent of their 
comrades and were wild to go on, I gave the 
men complete control, saying I could ride as far 
as they could run. 

Nothing could have pleased them better. 



The Race for the Shirts 41 

" Then, Ookemou," they said, " we stop not 
again except for a quick eat," that is, a lunch, 
" until you see your home." 

The stars had long been shining when we put 
out from the camp at Montreal Point directly 
for the end of the lake near the mouth of the 
mighty Nelson River. 

Of that long run I knew but little, as I was 
asleep in my cariole most of the time. 

A shout of exultation from my men as my 
cariole suddenly stopped, caused me to throw 
off my robes and spring out on the trail. 

Here before us was the camp, and the burning 
fire that told us it had been but lately left. To 
gather up the burning log ends, and quickly 
melt some snow and make a kettle of tea, was 
speedily done. A provision bag was opened 
and a hurried, but much needed, breakfast 
eaten, and then ere sunrise, we were off on the 
home stretch. 

How the dogs did travel ! And yet not so 
fast but that the men easily kept up to them 
without any apparent suffering. 

At Playgreen Point we met some Indians who 
were there encamped. Eagerly my men in- 
quired of them : 

" How long since the other sleds passed 
by?" 



42 The Battle of the Bears 

" About a half an hour, but they were going 
as rapidly as possible." 

" Marche I " is shouted to the dogs, and we 
are off. 

It is going to be a close race. 

And so now my men, conscious of their own 
endurance, begin talking encouragingly to the 
dogs, although they do not need a word. But 
it seems to relieve the strain the men are en- 
during, and so they just croon out their loving, 
endearing words to the dogs, as though they 
were children. 

Not a dog was struck on the whole long jour- 
ney. These two pet trains of mine were taught 
by kindness alone, with the exception of the 
peerless Voj^ageur. Sad to relate, it was the blow 
of a whip, from his former master in a fit of 
passion, that had forever robbed him of one of 
his bright eyes. 

To those loving words the noble dogs re- 
spond, and on, on, more rapidly we go. At the 
Fort, two miles from home, we halt a moment 
to hand the package of letters and papers to the 
officers there on the watch. The passing of the 
other trains had brought them all to the river- 
side and so they are eager for their letters. 

"Where are the other sleds?" my men call 
out. 



The Race for the Shirts 43 

" Just ahead of you, around the flagstaff rock," 
is shouted back. 

" Marche ! " and we are off again. 

Around the rock we rush and there, not half 
a mile ahead of us, are the men and dog trains, 
that for six days we have been following. Their 
quick eyes detect us and they see that they are not 
quite so sure of their new shirts after all. Soon 
we hear their shoutings and cheery calls to their 
dogs. They are doing their best to win. As it 
is now about midday, the whole of the village 
seems to be on the lookout as we rapidly speed 
along. The Indians line up each side of the icy 
trail and quickly see, from the fact that the 
Ookemou's famous train is near the rear, instead 
of, as usual, at the front, that there is something 
of interest going on. 

Slowly we are gaining. Voyageur's traces are 
tight, and if he only had dogs behind him with 
legs as long as his, he would soon be in the 
usual place at the head of all the trains. As it 
is, we reach the last train and it is a procession, 
now, of five trains with us in the rear. 

Every driver is excited. Indian stoicism is 
thrown to the winds. How they cheer and 
shout ! We are not a half mile from home. 

Old Voyageur, not accustomed to be in the 
rear of any train, will not be denied. 



44 The Battle of the Bears 

The icy expanse of Playgreen Lake, on which 
we are running, is clear of snow, and so the old 
dog springs out of the line of trains and dashes 
for the front. Foot by foot he gains upon them. 
Now he is side by side with the second train, 
now he is closing up the distance that separates 
him from the first. With a bound, he 
turns to make the last big effort to pass it. 

But we are now at the foot of the little hill on 
which stands our home, where loved ones with 
bright eyes and warm hearts, are waiting to 
welcome us. There also stands the chief. As 
we dash up, the excited men of the two head 
trains, shout out : 

" Chief, which train won?" 

" Both exactly even," he replies. 

So all the men got their shirts and there was 
great rejoicing. 



CHAPTER THREE 



The Call and Journey to the North 

Land 



The opening of the great Northwest. Our call to go to the Eed 
man's country. The long journey. Thirty days on the Prairies. 
Old Fort Garry. Lake Winnipeg. A welcome at Norway House. 



Ill 

AND now that my trusty dog-drivers are 
happy in the possession of their warm 
flannel shirts, let us go back and say 
something about how it came to pass that we 
happened to be in that wild North land in those 
early days. 

There was then no flourishing city of Winni- 
peg, neither in name was there any province of 
Manitoba. Even Dakota and Minnesota were 
only mentioned as the great territories over 
which still roamed the bloodthirsty Sioux In- 
dians whose recent massacres of the few adven- 
turous pioneer settlers had caused sorrow and 
tears in many an eastern home. Then the west 
was still the great wild west, where roamed the 
buffalo in countless herds, followed incessantly 
by the still wilder red men, the ideal hunters of 
the plains. West and North, those vast illimit- 
able prairies stretched, until their very extent 
seemed limitless and their possibilities, incom- 
prehensible. 

As increasing knowledge of these vast regions 
with rumors of their possibilities became more 
widely circulated, a new spirit was in the air 

47 



48 The Battle of the Bears 

and men began to feel the throbbings of a larger, 
grander life. The Call of the West, timid and 
uncertain as it was at first, became so loud at 
last that it could not be ignored. Yet for a 
time men hesitated, in spite of the increasing 
reports of the vastness of the country and its 
resources. But the reports kept increasing. 
Adventurous explorers returned with their 
glowing accounts of illimitable prairies of the 
richest soil, where the buffalo in myriads thun- 
dered over them, not only revelling in the 
richest grasses in the summer months, but also 
finding in the natural dried hay, sufficient 
nourishment to sustain them during the winter 
season. 

Missionaries and others who even in those re- 
mote days had penetrated far up the Saskatche- 
wan and even to the Athabasca and Peace Rivers 
brought back not only marvellous tales of the 
splendid climate and beauty of those regions but 
also as evidences of the possibilities of those 
places agriculturally, many specimens of the 
grains and vegetables that were there easily 
raised. 

These and other evidences could not be gain- 
said or resisted. 

Thus the great Western March began and con- 
tinues and will continue as long as men crave 



Call and Journey to the North Land 49 

land and homes, that they can call their own. 
Scores of thousands have settled there and there 
is room for millions more. 

The churches, quick to see in these great 
Providential movements, splendid opportunities 
for usefulness, as well as their imperative obli- 
gations to give the privileges of religious wor- 
ship to these multitudes, have ever been alert 
and energetic in their work. So now, as in the 
early days of the settlements in the East, the 
adventurous emigrant on the plains is hardly 
settled in his abode, ere the devoted missionary 
is there with the Means of Grace. 

And not only were the courageous white emi- 
grants from the beginning of this great Western 
movement followed up by the Heralds of the 
Cross, but the wandering Indians, the original 
proprietors of those regions, were in a measure, 
searched out and in wise and conciliatory ways, 
shown the grandeur of the Cross and the 
blessedness of the Christian religion. The suc- 
cessful missions, existing to-day among the 
various tribes are the evidences not only of the 
power of the gospel to save, but the foretaste of 
the time when they shall all be Christianized 
and civilized. 

To the writer and his young bride was this 



50 The Battle of the Bears 

grace given in 1868, that they should go far 
hence and preach this blessed gospel, the un- 
searchable riches of Christ, among the Indians 
in the far north land even beyond the prairie 
province of Manitoba. 

Our call to the work was very sudden and un- 
expected. It seemed then a great wrench to 
leave a flourishing church, a loving-hearted con- 
gregation, a large circle of friends, and all the 
blessings of civilization, to go out into the dis- 
tant wilderness in utter absolute ignorance both 
of the place and of the people. 

The request to go had come from a missionary 
committee, composed of sixteen godly ministers 
and laymen. Startled as we were by a request 
which meant so much to us, we dared not lightly 
consider it. The more we pondered it and 
prayed about it, the more convinced we were 
that it was of God. 

Of the farewell meetings and the varied prep- 
arations for outgoing, we have written in other 
volumes, so we need not repeat them here. 
Kindred spirits, full of zeal and enthusiasm, 
were with us and so we made quite a display as 
with our good horses and canvas-covered 
wagons we began in the city of Hamilton our 
long journey, which was for my wife and my- 
self, to occupy two months and nineteen days. 



Call and Journey to the North Land ^t 

By steamboat and railroad, we went up the 
Great Lakes and crossed to the Mississippi, and 
there at St. Paul, we reharnessed our horses 
and began our march over the great prairies. 

In a few days we passed beyond the last 
vestige of civilization. Then day after day we 
slowly moved along over the then famous North- 
west Trail. The monotony of the journey was 
at times broken by some queer sights and ex- 
citing experiences. One of the things that most 
interested us was the meeting and passing of the 
Red River trains of ox-carts. When first ob- 
served far away in the distance they looked like 
some great serpent slowly crawling over the 
flat prairie. As no oil or grease was ever used 
upon the axle trees the screeching, nerve-racking, 
discordant sounds, those hundreds of carts made, 
as they slowly moved along was simply inde- 
scribable. 

Then the wild Indians and the buffalo roamed 
in those regions and adventurous travellers, like 
ourselves, had to camp out and sleep on the 
ground when their day's journey ended. Thus 
our party travelled for thirty days, sleeping each 
night on the prairies. 

At Fort Garry, now the flourishing city of 
Winnipeg, the Chicago of the Canadian North- 
west, we tarried a few days, sleeping each night 



52 The Battle of the Bears 

in our camp, as there was not a hotel or lodging 
house. Here we hurriedly made all needed prep- 
arations for the latter part of our long journey. 
We parted with our fine faithful horse, that had 
brought us so well all the way from St. Paul, 
as we had no further need for him. 

The last fourteen days were spent in an open 
boat on Lake Winnipeg. These Hudson's Bay 
Company's inland boats are, or were, one of 
the features of the country. They are emphatic- 
ally *' of the country," as we have never seen 
nor heard of anything just like them in any 
other land. They are sharp at both ends and 
are bulky enough to carry about four tons of 
supplies. They are made on a keel so strong, 
that they can be safely dragged over rough 
portages, of which there are so many in that 
wild country, without suffering any injury. 
Their full crew is eight oarsmen and a steers- 
man. They carry a mast, which, when not in 
use, is lashed to the side of the boat, and a large 
square sail, with which, in a good wind, they 
can make very fast time. 

We embarked with our luggage at lower Fort 
Garry in one of these boats, which was manned 
by a crew of Christian Indians from the 
mission, to which we were now appointed. We 
were of course delighted with this arrangement, 



Call and Journey to the North Land 53 

and although we could not as yet speak their 
language, we found that some of them could 
understand English, and so, using them as 
interpreters, we got on delightfully. 

Their primitive method of cooking their flat 
cakes did not at first strike us very favorably. 
We noticed that while some of them, when act- 
ing as cooks., for they cooked in turns — did make 
some slight efforts to conform to certain of the 
prejudices of civilization, as regards cleanliness, 
others seemed to completely ignore them. 

One sturdy Indian much amused us, especially 
as we had not to eat his cakes. When his turn 
came to act as cook, he carried ashore the bag 
of flour and, merely cleaning the granite rock 
with a few passes of his moccasined foot, he then 
and there poured out about twelve or fifteen 
pounds of flour. As no dish happened to be 
handy, he carried up sufficient water in his 
old, dirty, rowdy hat with which to transform 
the flour into dough ! He then industriously 
kneaded it until he had it of a consistency to 
suit him. Then he divided it into chunks of 
about a pound weight, each of which he cleverly 
flattened out and secured on the end of a stick, 
the other end of which he fixed in the ground 
before the hot fire, which others had prepared. 
When one side of the cakes was cooked, they 



54 The Battle of the Bears 

were turned, and, when the other side was 
browned, the work was done. 

In addition to these flat cakes thus prepared, 
our crew had an abundant supply of pemmican, 
as in those days the buffalo was still to be found 
on the plains farther west. This pemmican, 
which is the dried meat of the buffalo, pounded 
fine and packed in bags made of the skins of the 
slaughtered animal, is very nourishing food, and 
was much preferred by the Indians on their 
long journeys for the trading companies, to any 
other article of food that could be obtained for 
them. 

We soon became very much interested in our 
Indian crew. The steersman's name was Thomas 
Mamanowatum, which in English is, " Oh, be 
Joyful." He was, however, best known as " Big 
Tom," on account of his gigantic stature. He 
was a very good-natured, quiet man. Of his 
sterling qualities we soon learned, and through 
all the years in which we so intimately knew 
him, it was only to admire and respect him. 
There were others in our part}^ to Avhom we be- 
came much attached. There were two or three 
wives of the men in the boat, who had obtained 
permission to accompany their husbands on this 
trip into the Red River country, by the courtesy 
of the Hudson's Bay Company. With them 



Call and Journey to the North Land ^^ 

was an old widowed woman, Mary Murdo. 
We became very much attached to her, not only 
because she was such a bright, clever woman 
and a most devout and consistent Christian, but 
also because of the tragic incident which robbed 
her of her husband, who was one of the most 
skillful steersmen and guides in the Hudson's 
Bay Company's service. 

Murdo's tragic death occurred when he was 
taking a brigade of boats, loaded with furs, 
down to York Factory, on Hudson Bay, for 
shipment to England. When running the wild 
rapids at Hell's Gates in the Nelson River, he 
was suddenly hurled from his boat into the 
raging waters and drowned. 

As we had no appliances on such a skiff-like 
boat for cooking, we went ashore for our meals. 
Sometimes the boat could be rowed up so close 
to the rocks that there was no difficulty in step- 
ping ashore. This, however, was not always 
the case as sand-bars or shallow spots were 
often between us and our desired landing-places. 
However, such things troubled very little these 
clever Indians, who are so resourceful and full 
of expedients. The Indians, both men and 
women, take to the water as naturally as ducks ; 
so, when we struck these poor landing-places, 
the boatmen quickly sprang over the side of the 



56 The Battle of the Bears 

boat and were soon ashore. A broad-shouldered 
Indian, by the name of Soquaatum, always in 
these emergencies relieved me from the necessity 
of doing what John Sunday, a native Indian mis- 
sionary, had said I would have to do — carry my 
wife on my back. Soquaatum would quickly 
wade around to the side of the boat where Mrs. 
Young was awaiting him, and carefully taking 
her on his broad shoulders, would carry her to 
the shore. I waded ashore as did the rest, ex- 
cept on one occasion, where the water was un- 
usually deep. Here the good-natured Big Tom 
asked to be allowed to carry me on his back. 
In a moment of weakness I consented, and to 
my dismay, but to the merriment of all the rest, 
he slipped, and over his head I tumbled into 
the water. 

Thus with ever-varying experiences, which 
broke the monotony of the journey, we travelled 
on, and, while happy in the prospect of the 
work before us, we could not but at times be 
startled, at the rapid transitions through which 
we were passing. Memory carried us back over 
a few brief weeks to our happy home in civiliza- 
tion, with all that that implied. Now here we 
were out in an open boat on the great Lake Win- 
nipeg, or encamped with some Indians on its 
picturesque shores. But we felt that it was all 



Call and Journey to the North Land z^^ 

right, and we were happier and safer here than 
we could possibly be in any other place. 

Reaching our destination, at Norway House, 
we were very cordially welcomed by the Rev. 
Charles Stringfellow — the missionary who had 
for long years been doing grand service at Nor- 
way House, and who, upon our coming, was, 
with his invalid wife, immediately to return to 
civilization. The Christian Indians, who while 
sorry to part with the man who had been a 
blessing to them, cheerfully welcomed his suc- 
cessor. From Mr. Stringfellow, who remained 
with us for a few days ere he left, we obtained 
all information possible about the mission work. 

At Berens River, and also at Poplar Point, 
where our boat had halted, on the way up Lake 
Winnipeg, we had heard the monotonous sounds 
of the drums of pagan conj urers. Here, however, 
at this mission, the first sounds we heard were 
those of prayer and praise from a company of 
Christian Indians assembled in the prayer-meet- 
ing. Thus cheered by these evidences of tri- 
umphs already won, we were encouraged to hope 
for victories yet to be obtained. 

We were very much pleased with the Indian 
boys and girls of the village, with whom we 
speedily became great friends. It was not many 
hours after our arrival, before the bright-eyed 



58 The Battle of the Bears 

boys were eager to show me their skill in the use 
of the bow and arrow, and, as these had been 
my favorite weapons when a boy, I was not loth 
to enter into their sports and be a boy with 
them once more. I could see, however, that 
they considered me rather awkward in the use 
of their bows and one of them in fun whispered 
to a comrade standing near, as he watched me, 
and saw how easily I missed the mark, a word 
which sounded very much like " moneyas," — 
which I afterwards found meant a greenhorn. 

However, they seldom missed the mark, and 
so they speedily won all the prizes which I then 
had to give them, and in many a subsequent 
contest. 

In orderly succession the Christian Indians 
came and called upon us, and, on being intro- 
duced by Mr. Stringfellow, in their quiet but 
kindly way, welcomed us to their midst. 

The pagan Indians at first, with one excep- 
tion, kept aloof, but from the first night, b}^ 
their noisy powwows and monotonous drum- 
ming, let us know of their presence, and that 
there was no disposition on their part, for the 
present at least, to renounce the religion of their 
forefathers and become Christians. 

I must confess that while these tangible evi- 
dences of a degrading paganism, at first some- 



Call and Journey to the North Land 59 

what startled me, their music seemed but as the 
bugle-call to battle, and I felt nerved and 
strengthened for the conflict, in which I was as- 
sured that the victory would be on the side of 
the all-conquering Lord. In after years these 
hopes and prayers were more than realized. 
The one pagan who did promptly call upon me 
was a noted conjurer, called Tapastanum. The 
most conspicuous looking article of dress on him 
was a large, round looking-glass which he wore 
over his heart, and of which he was very proud. 

Shouting out his " Ho ! Ho's ! " he came and 
shook hands with me. Then immediately after 
he loudly exclaimed : 

" I hope you have brought plenty of tea and 
tobacco for me ! " 

Greeting him cordially, I could only say, 

" I have brought you something better. It is 
a message of good-will from the Great Spirit, 
who is your father and mine." 

After these various interviews, I was taken 
out into the fish house, and there, among many 
other things I was told how the whitefish, our 
principal article of food, were to be caught in 
gill nets and then kept frozen solid and hung up 
secure from the thievish Indian dogs. 

Upon me was impressed the necessity of being 
sure to secure abundance of them, as they would 



6o The Battle of the Bears 

be the chief and often the only article of food 
we would have during the winter months. 

Some idea of the continued severity of the 
winters before us was thus learned, when the 
thousands of whitefish required, and which 
could be caught only in a period of, say, three 
weeks, would remain frozen solid from Novem- 
ber to April inclusive. 

Then the birch bark canoes were examined, 
and it was explained to me that this capacious 
one was for the journeys in the stormy lakes; 
this narrow, light one was for the long river 
trips, where there were many portages to be 
made, and it would have to be carried around 
them on the head of one of my canoemen. Of 
some old ones patched in various places, with 
pieces of birch bark and daubed with pitch, I 
was informed that the}'' were still good for the 
fall fishing, when our winter's supply would be 
obtained, and also for the sturgeon fishing, when 
these great fish visited our part of the lake. 

All of these things were revelations to me, 
both unique and interesting, and, as I listened 
and endeavored to understand, I felt that a new 
life was indeed before me. 



CHAPTER FOUR 
Introducing My Dogs 

My first introduction to the sleigh dogs of the North Land. The 
survival of the fittest. Dog travelling. No roads — long winters. 
The Eskimo Dog. Cunning noble animals. 



IV 

FROM Mr. Stringfellow, my worthy pred- 
ecessor, I had my first introduction to the 
Huskie or Eskimo dogs. He took me out 
to the stockade yards, which served as a kennel 
and a place of exercise for the seven medium- 
sized dogs which constituted his pack on hand. 
I confess I was not favorably impressed with 
them. They were neither pure Eskimo nor any 
other breed, — only seven nondescript mongrels, 
that had not much in them to win my admira- 
tion or make me long for a trip with such crea- 
tures as my steeds. I subsequently found out, 
when winter came and the dog-travelling really 
began, that my first impression was correct, and 
so, as speedily as possible, I strengthened and 
increased my pack by importing from home 
the biggest and strongest dogs it was possible 
for me to obtain. In a couple of years I had 
some fairly good trains and began my long trips 
to distant points. 

Why are dogs used in travelling in that land 
and not in other places ? It is simply because 

63 



64 The Battle of the Bears 

there is no possibility of travelling in any other 
way except on foot, and that is really done by 
most of those who even take dogs with them. 
The Indians never ride. The guide is ever on 
foot in front. The only persons supposed to 
ride are the Hudson's Bay officers and other 
gentlemen of the service, when going from post 
to post in the country, and the missionary. 
And even they have to walk sometimes for days 
together, on account of the deep snows, or the 
heavily-loaded sleds which the dogs have to 
drag along. 

In these northern regions winter reigns from 
October till May. There are no railroads, no 
tram-cars, no ordinary country roads on which 
horses can travel. The snow is deep, and as 
there are no thaws after the first snow falls, 
until spring-time, each succeeding snow-storm 
adds to what has already fallen, so that in some 
winters the quantity is very great. Thus it is 
easily seen how utterly useless horses, mules or 
oxen would be in such a place, where long 
journeys have to be made. It is a case of " the 
survival of the fittest," and the dog has been 
found to be the best, and indeed the only, 
animal that can do the work. 

How the Eskimo dog was evolved we know 
not. But it is a well known fact that for the 



Introducing My Dogs 65 

rough, hard work of every-day dog travelling, 
he stands preeminent. The amount of priva- 
tions, beatings and starvings he will survive 
and come out of, fat and flourishing, is simply 
incredible. I was able by the greatest care, to 
get more good work and greater speed out of my 
imported St. Bernard and Newfoundland dogs, 
than I ever did out of the Eskimo dogs ; but if 
I had allowed them to be exposed to the hard- 
ships that the Eskimos are constantly meeting, 
they would have all perished the first winter. 
For my fine dogs I carried woolen shoes which 
were like great long mittens without the 
thumbs. I gave them a buffalo skin on which 
to sleep at the wintry camp, or more frequently 
allowed them to sleep on the top of my fur 
robes and around me, when my Indian attend- 
ants had tucked me away in my bed at the 
camp-fire in the woods, or in a hole dug in the 
snow. 

The Eskimo dog scorned such luxuries. All 
he asked for at the camp-fire, were his two white 
fish as his one meal of the day. Then when 
they were quickly swallowed, he soon pawed a 
hole in the snow, curled himself up in a heap, 
and, with his bushy tail over his nose, slept 
until he heard his driver looking for him. 
Then, in all probability, he quietly skulked 



66 The Battle of the Bears 

away and cunningly hid himself, to the delay 
of the party and the annoyance of all concerned, 
except himself. 

There seems to be but little affection in Es- 
kimo dogs. This is hardly to be wondered at, 
considering the way they are treated. They 
seem to have come to regard mankind as their 
enemies, from whom they are to steal everything 
they can, and whose patience they are to try in 
every possible way. Even those that I raised 
from puppyhood, took all petting as an insult, 
and never seemed to feel right until their com- 
rades had given them a thrashing for submitting 
to such weakness. 

Still they could work, and keep at it day after 
day in a marvellous manner. There is a latent 
strength in them that is wonderful. Often when 
we would be travelling towards the close of a 
long day, where the work was very laborious on 
account of the deep snow and our heavy loads, a 
fox or wildcat or some other animal, aroused, 
perhaps, by the guide, would suddenly cross the 
trail in front of us. My ! how the dogs would 
forget their weariness, and considering the heavy 
loads behind them but as trifles would dash after 
their prey. Nor would they cease their mad 
rush, until perhaps the sled behind them would 
be suddenly brought to a standstill, as it 



Introducing My Dogs 67 

jammed up against some standing tree or fallen 
log. 

Many and cunning were the tricks of the na- 
tive dogs. Their sole ambition seemed to be 
ever eating. The one absorbing thought that 
appeared uppermost, was to get hold of food to 
satisfy their craving, and if it could possibly be 
stolen it was very much more enjoyed. I have 
repeatedly seen these dogs when they thought 
they were not being watched, leave their fish 
to go and snap up something not half so palata- 
ble as their supper. To steal and devour their 
driver's moccasins, which he had hung up at the 
camp-fire to dry, was a trick that some were most 
clever at. Others had a liking for the long deer- 
skin whip-lash, and in speedily absorbing it, 
seemed to have the idea that it would do more 
good inside, than by being heavily laid on on the 
outside. So fierce and savage were they that 
neither calves nor young cattle under two years 
of age, could be allowed to run at large. 

There were some special dogs that I could not 
but love, such as faithful old Voyageur, the 
matchless leader, whose heart I broke by 
thoughtlessly putting a young dog ahead of 
him in the train ; and Rover, the dog doctor, 
who healed and made well for me many a 
wounded dog by the skillful, persistent use of his 



68 The Battle of the Bears 

tongue. And Hector, who saved my bo3^'s life, 
when the great wolf would have made a meal 
of him, and who in his autobiography has so 
well told the story. And Koona, the whitest dog 
I ever saw yet the greatest rascal to get other 
dogs fighting, while he himself was too cowardly 
to join in the melee. But with these and a few 
other exceptions, I eventually succeeded in elim- 
inating the native dogs from my pack and had 
in their places the splendid St. Bernards and 
Newfoundlands of civilization. 

Of these the noblest were Jack and Cuffy. 
But there were others that served me grandly 
and well. With them I travelled some thousands 
of miles each winter and thus was able to carry 
the glad tidings of salvation to distant lonely 
places in the interior where the gospel had never 
been proclaimed. The sufferings at times were 
terrible, but the triumphs more than compen- 
sated. Of some of these journeys and their va- 
ried adventures we shall have much to say. 



CHAPTER FIVE 
Dog Travelling in the North Land 

Dog travelling experiences. Dogs used extensively by fur traders. 
Dogs in summer — a long holiday. The dog sleds — how con- 
structed. The harness of moose-skin. 



TRAVELLING with dogs ! Yes, and it is 
not a bad method of travelling, after all, 
considering the character of the country^ 
the absence of roads, and the intensity of the 
cold, if you have abundance of warm clothing, 
plenty of food, good dogs, a clever guide, and 
congenial Indian companions. 

But to have a good time you must have good 
dogs. For, as there are men and men, and even 
boys and boys, so there are dogs and dogs. And 
there is the greatest difference imaginable be- 
tween the good and the bad dogs of the North 
Land. It was ever a pleasure to travel with a 
splendid train of jolly, high-spirited, willing 
dogs who barked and bounded while in their 
harness, and were eager to be at work. Often 
there was a keen rivalry as to which of them 
should be first harnessed, and then the fortunate 
one because he could not laugh his delight, 
would express his joy by a most comical grin. 

On the other hand, a poor lot of sullen, skulk- 
ing dogs, that did the least amount of work pos- 
sible, and were apparently ever trying to see how 

71 



72 The Battle of the Bears 

provoking and cunning they could be, were 
indeed a nuisance and a trial. 

" Missionary ! There is no use of your trying 
to make a Christian out of me unless you give 
me better dogs than these to drive ! " Thus was 
I addressed by a French half-breed, whom out of 
s^^mpathy I had taken into my home one bitterly 
cold night, to save him from starvation. 

Men of stronger intellects than Pasche had 
found that handling poor dogs was about the 
biggest trial of patience that had come to them. 
And yet for over two hundred years the only 
method of travelling, unless you go on snow- 
shoes for several months of each year, both in 
the northern part of the Dominion of Canada 
and in Alaska, was, and is, by dog train. 

Throughout all of those northern regions, were 
scattered the trading posts of that great company 
known as the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company. 
So perfect was the organization and so energetic 
the government that there was constant com- 
munication between the headquarters of each 
great division and every outpost, no matter how 
apparently inaccessible and remote. The result 
was that hundreds of trains of dogs, driven 
by the most enduring Indians and led on by the 
cleverestof guides, were ever on the move through 
those vast regions, during all the winter months. 



Dog Travelling in the North Land 73 

The best dogs of the country were owned b}^ 
the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company. We 
can readil}^ understand, from the fact that so 
much work had to be accomplished, that the 
men in the service, from the officials, who had 
often to make their long journeys from post to 
post, to the drivers employed, would make every 
effort to secure and retain the very best dogs 
possible. 

The short brilliant summer of the North Land 
is one continuous holiday for the dogs. The 
treatment, however, which they receive during 
the summer months, when no work is required 
of them, varies according to the means and kindly 
disposition of their owners. The dogs belonging 
to a trading post were generally sent off in 
charge of a trusted Indian to some small island, 
where the waters abounded in fish. Here the 
old man camped with his family, and his sole 
duty was to keep his troop of dogs well supplied 
with their favorite food. But the dogs of the 
Indians were not always thus carefully looked 
after. While some of the natives did all that 
their limited means would permit them to do 
during the summer, when as a general thing, 
there was not an overabundance of food, even 
for the people themselves, we are sorry to have 
to say that, from the time they unharnessed the 



74 The Battle of the Bears 

animals at the end of the last trip in spring, until 
they captured them for work again in the begin- 
ning of tlie next winter, some of the Indians paid 
not the slightest attention to their dogs. Of 
course, if there happened to be an abundance of 
fish, the dog got all beyond what the people 
themselves could consume. If any bear or deer 
were killed, the dogs received a share of the offal 
and had the bones to pick, but usually they 
were so neglected that they were nothing better 
than the scavengers of the villages, and were 
ever so hungry that they devoured most greedily 
everything that their sharp teeth and cunning 
thievish habits could secure. 

As clever thieves they are unrivalled, as many 
an unsophisticated traveller and missionary has 
learned to his cost. They are quite equal to 
wolves in their fierce attack upon sheep and 
calves, while domestic fowl are considered dain- 
ties to be captured and eaten at the first possible 
moment. The stories told of the audacity and 
cunning they show in outwitting even those who 
are well aware of their ways are marvellous and 
amusing. Not very comical, however, are they, 
when the loss occurring through their tricks has 
been serious, and dire sufferings have come to 
those who have been their victims. 

I travelled some thousands of miles by dog 



Dog Travelling in the North Land y^ 

train, and, while I found that this primitive 
method had its drawbacks, there was also a good 
deal of pleasurable excitement about it, and, best 
of all, it enabled me to do a large amount of 
pioneering, as well as of missionary and educa- 
tional work, which otherwise it would have been 
utterly impossible for me to have performed. 

The pure Eskimo dog had become a rarity 
among the Indians where I lived. There had 
been such an admixture of breeds of various 
kinds that as regards appearance, it was often 
impossible to tell which one predominated ; but 
as to the general or complete depravity it was 
very evident that the Eskimo was first and fore- 
most. It was hardly to be wondered at that the 
average dog of the native was such an inveterate 
thief and all-around scamp, when one looked at 
the way in which he was generally treated. 
With few exceptions the dog was never regularly 
fed. He had to steal his food or die. As he 
loved life, he ever kept his wits sharpened 
to steal anything and everything his voracious 
appetite craved, and his marvellous digestion 
could master. 

I suffered so much at first, when I was obliged 
to use these native dogs, from the loss of food, 
leather shirts, moccasins, harness, whips, etc., 
that I was several times almost stranded on my 



j() The Battle of the Bears 

journeys by the destruction their teeth and 
appetites wrought. One night some of them 
stole from under my head a bag in which were 
some precious biscuits, while the same night, 
others got the meat bag from under the head of 
my Indian guide. All of the food we had was 
in these two bags, except some frozen whitefish, 
which fortunately had been hung up out of 
reach. The dogs not only devoured the contents 
of the two bags, but also the greater part of the 
one in which the meat had been kept. 

And yet these animals won my admiration 
and respect for the work they did, and what 
they enabled me to accomplish. Day after day 
amid the terrible cold, through trackless forests 
or over vast, frozen lakes, not only in the 
brilliant sunshine of those short but bright 
Arctic days, but when blizzards raged and 
howled like demons for their prey, they bravely 
pushed on and on, dauntless and untiring, dis- 
playing such sagacitj^ and reserve of strength that 
I could not but be proud of them, even if they 
did resent every effort I made to win their friend- 
ship or their love. For the average Indian dog 
hates a white man and, whenever he dares, con- 
siders it his duty to snarl at him and to rob him 
without mercy. Kindness and compassion he 
considers a sign of weakness and acts accordingly. 



Dog Travelling in the North Land "jj 

The sled of the Indians is a very light affair 
and yet will carry, if necessary, a heavy load. 
The birch tree which gave the Indian the beauti- 
ful bark for his canoe and wigwam, also fur- 
nished him with the wood for his dog-sled. The 
original method of manufacture was to cut a 
birch tree into lengths of ten or twelve feet, and 
then, with long, thin wedges, to split the logs 
into boards. 

These the natives smoothed and fashioned to 
suit their purpose. When made smooth and 
even, two or three of them were securely fastened 
edge to edge with deerskin twine. Then one end 
of these boards, thus joined together, was made 
thin and, after having been carefully steamed, 
was bent into a half circle, thus forming the head 
sled. Cross-bars to strengthen it were carefully 
lashed on, and loops were fastened along the 
sides, by which the loads were easily tied upon 
it. 

When thus completed the sleds were from 
fifteen to twenty inches wide and from eight to 
ten feet long. The Hudson's Bay Company 
were accustomed to get sawed oak boards from 
the more southern sections of the country, and 
out of these their carpenters made sleds similar 
in construction to those used by the Indians, but 
very much stronger and consequently able to 



jS The Battle of the Bears 

carry much heavier loads. When rigged with a 
back and sides of parchment, the sleds were 
called carioles. 

Four dogs constitute a train. They are, if at 
all efficient, quite able to draw on one of these 
sleds a load of from seven hundred to a thou- 
sand pounds, at the rate of from four to seven 
miles an hour, according to the character of the 
roads. 

Roads, as the word is understood in civilized 
lands, are utterly unknown to those regions. 
There is not a mile of road in thousands and 
thousands of square miles. The surveyor has 
never entered those regions. It is still one 
trackless, roadless country in winter, where the 
snow lies deep and even the trails made by wild 
animals are obliterated by the gale. The so- 
called " good roads " of such regions, are the vast 
icy expanses where the terrible cold has frozen 
up the lakes and rivers so firmly that the mis- 
sionaries and Indians can, with perfect safety, 
dash along over the surface at great speed. 
Sometimes with good dogs and splendid Indians 
we travelled over those icy fields at the rate of 
seventy or ninety miles a day. No wonder we 
called those our good roads ! 

Our bad roads were the dreary forest regions, 
where amidst the trees and fallen logs and many 



Dog Travelling in the North Land 79 

other obstructions, the snow lay deep, and where 
the only traces of our route were the tracks 
made by the clever guide, whose place was 
always at the front. Sometimes for days and 
days together we had to push or force our way 
through these trackless regions. The snow was 
everywhere. The underbrush and low branches 
were bowed down with it. Yet on and on we 
had to push, or at times crawl, through so many 
obstructions that we were often thankful if we 
could make twenty-five or forty miles in a 
long day's journey. Then, no matter how 
weary with the adventures of the day, when it 
was about ended, we had to make our camp for 
the night's sojourn. There was no friendly 
Indian to invite us to his wigwam, or hospitable 
white settler with the latch-string hanging out- 
side of his log-cabin door. For many days and 
nights on those long trips we saw no vestige of 
human habitations. So we had to do the best 
we could independently of the rest of the world. 
Fortunately we well knew this would be our 
lot ere we started, and so, as far as possible, 
provision was made for every emergency. Our 
dog-sleds were well loaded. There were blankets 
and fur robes, and abundance of the fattest of 
food procurable, for fat is the favorite food of the 
country. Nature is true to her requirements — 



8o The Battle of the Bears 

the food that has the most heat in it is that which 
she gives the most craving for. The fattest of 
meat and the fattest of fish were always in 
demand. Then, besides, we carried our kettles, 
dishes, guns, ammunition, medicines, Bibles, and 
presents for the Indians, and indeed everything 
essential, and for all emergencies as well. The 
frozen whitefish for our dogs was about the 
heaviest part of our loads when the journey 
commenced. We were careful not to forget a 
goodly supply of dog shoes for the feet of our 
civilized dogs. In spite of all care they would 
at times injure themselves. The pads would be 
badly cut on the broken ice, sharp points of 
wood would pierce through the webbing between 
the toes, and saddest of all, sometimes a part or 
the whole of the foot would be frozen. 

The harnesses were made out of mooseskin, 
and were strong durable affairs. Some of them, 
especially those used by the clerks and gentle- 
men of the Hudson's Bay Company, were often 
beautifully ornamented with silk and beadwork, 
and were profusely supplied with little silver 
bells. The music of these bells the dogs seemed 
to enjoy, and it was a well known fact that some 
of them could receive no greater punishment 
than to be deprived of their bells. 

I have nothing but the most pleasant memo- 



Dog Travelling in the North Land 8i 

ries of my faithful Indian attendants, both on 
the summer and winter trips. The privations 
and hardships were many, yet they patiently 
endured them all without murmuring. Food 
might be all gone and there be but little pros- 
pect of securing more for some days, yet they 
only laughed at the privations and courageously 
persevered until better days came. 

The guide was ever considered the responsible 
man of the party. He was selected for his 
knowledge of the route and all-round clever- 
ness. To him I, as well as my dog-drivers, 
looked in every emergency. He selected the 
camping-places and arranged the hours of start- 
ing, and the time when, and place where, the 
night was to be spent at the close of the long 
day's travel. His place was ever at the head. 
Some of these guides prided themselves on al- 
ways keeping ahead of the leading train of dogs, 
on the lookout for dangers or necessities for 
changing the route. 

I confess to a weakness to have my dogs al- 
ways in the finest condition and my travelling 
outfit as nearly perfect as my circumstances 
would allow. 

So it was not unusual for me to have as guests 
at my house and kennels for some days ere the 
trip began, the men who were to accompany me 



82 The Battle of the Bears 

on the long journey, and also their dogs which 
I hired when my own trains were insufficient. 
Both men and dogs were there fed to the 
highest limit of their capacity to eat, and it was 
remarkable to see how every twenty-four hours 
of proper feeding, with good, well-cooked food, 
physically developed both men and beasts. 
This feeding them so well before starting, was a 
great saving, as there were not then such de- 
mands upon the contents of our sleds. 



CHAPTER SIX 
The Winter Camp in the Snow 

still on the go. The loving "Farewells." The long, lonely trips. 
Meals at the camp-fires — our bill of fare. Fat meat and strong 
tea — the preparation of the camp-fire. Axes brittle as glass in sixty 
below zero. Digging out our camp in the snow with snow-shoes. 
Feeding our faithful dogs on fish — for them but one meal a day. 



nr 



VI 

HE sleds, as described in the last chap- 
■ ter, are loaded for a journey ; the eager 
"*" dogs, long rested, and well fed, are bark- 
ing their glad challenges to each other, as they 
spring in their traces, wild to be off. 

In the little mission house the loving fare- 
wells are being said, since for the next month or 
six weeks the travellers will be so lost in the 
wilderness that there will be absolutely no pos- 
sibility of any communication between them 
and those left behind. 

Then the word is given to the guide that 
everything is ready, and instantly, with a fare- 
well wave of his hand to his watching family, 
the missionary is off. 

" Marche ! Marche ! " is now the stern com- 
mand, and one dog-train after another is soon 
dashing along, eager, if possible, to keep the 
guide in sight. In a few minutes the Indian 
village, with its scores of friendly natives who 
have come out to the trail to say " good-bye " to 
the missionary and his companions, is left be- 
hind. 

85 



86 The Battle of the Bears 

Now there is nothing before us for some days 
of hard travelling but the great primeval forests, 
broken by frozen lakes and rivers. We may 
possibly meet with some solitary hunters who 
are out trapping for the rich fur-bearing animals 
that are to be found in those vast, lonely places. 
No friendly settler at the door of his log cabin 
will open us a welcome refuge from the cold 
night storm, no cozy country inn with accom- 
modation for man or beast is to be met with 
here. 

But what care we? Our old, experienced 
guide carefully looked over the outfit as the 
sleds were packed, and he says there is every- 
thing necessary for a fine trip. With this as- 
surance we may rest satisfied, for he makes but 
few, if any, mistakes. 

How glorious the climate ! How beautiful all 
nature looks in her deep covering of purest 
snow, bathed in the glorious sunshine ! The air 
is so exhilarating that it seems a luxury to live, 
even if the temperature is forty degrees below 
zero. 

Our dogs have settled down to their steady 
jog-trot, which they will keep up until the jour- 
ney ends. Their loads are heavy now, but they 
are fat and eager. Every day will lessen the 
weight of the sleds, as we feed ourselves and our 



The Winter Camp in the Snow 87 

dogs from the supplies they hold. " Don't run 
too much the first day or two," is the guide's 
command, and he considerately adds : *' Your 
sled is less heavily loaded than the others, and 
you may jump on it and ride occasionally." 
This arrangement of riding when you are tired, 
and the jumping off and running when you feel 
chilly, is a capital one, and enables you to get 
over a good deal of ground in the course of the 
day. 

" Look out for your nose and the small por- 
tions of your cheeks that your furs do not cover. 
There are some suspicious white spots amid the 
healthy red ones. Rub them well with the furry 
back of your big beaver mittens. There, they 
are all right again ! Remember that in a tem- 
perature like this the exposed parts of the face 
are easily frost-bitten, unless hardened by many 
winters as are our faces," our splendid Indian 
companions remind and warn us. 

Hungry ! Well, it is no wonder, considering 
the way we have been travelling and the char- 
acter of the climate. Nature knows best, when 
not perverted, and that craving for food is the 
call for fuel for the manufacture of more heat, 
for our safety, as well as comfort. But what is 
the matter with the dogs ? Hold on to your end 
line, or your train will get away from you. See, 



88 The Battle of the Bears 

it is all right. The guide well knew it was time 
for the first meal, and there he is ahead of us 
with a splendid fire ready for the kettles. The 
dogs detected the fire before we did, and that 
was the reason why they so suddenly quickened 
their speed. 

Now we are at the blazing fire in this spot 
where the guide has cleared away the snow with 
his snow-shoes, and with his axe, which he al- 
ways carries in his belt, has cut down some of 
the plentiful supply of dry wood, which burns 
so brilliantly. The kettles are soon full of boil- 
ing water, made from the melting of the snow, 
which is so pure and abundant. We were 
amazed at first at the quantity of snow required 
to make a kettle of water. It is so light and dry 
that there is but little water in it. This is the 
reason why the blizzards of the land are so dan- 
gerous, as it is very easy for them, when raging, 
to lift up and fill the air with snow. 

But dinner is ready, and as nobody stands on 
ceremony, we quickly seat ourselves on the fur 
robes which our attentive Indians have unpacked 
for us, and after asking heaven's blessing on our 
food, we very heartily partake of it. At first we 
thought it to be a little too heavy, and were 
fearful that we could not enjoy so much fat meat. 
In a few days, however, the fat meat is about all 



The Winter Camp in the Snow 89 

we care for. Nature gives the craving for the 
food most serviceable, and that is the kind which 
furnishes most heat for these bodies of ours, 
which here must be kept working at high pres- 
sure. 

Now we are off again, wonderfully refreshed 
by that hearty meal. We are fortunate to-day 
in having the trail made by some hunters who 
have but lately come in from their distant hunt- 
ing grounds, situated about a hundred miles in 
the direction we are going. If no blizzard ar- 
rives, this means that we shall have a fairly good 
road for a couple of days. Another short stop 
for a rest and meal, and then on we go until the 
sun is sinking in the west and will in a half 
hour or so disappear behind the horizon. 

We have not seen the guide for some time, but 
now our excited dogs are forgetting their weari- 
ness, and, to judge by their eager anxiety to get 
on, are surely on the lookout for him. Yes, 
there he is, and he is scanning the forest as he 
walks leisurely along. He stops at length and 
as we come up to him, says : 

" Plenty travel for first day. We camp here." 

" What does he mean ? " I ask, although he 
has, out of respect for us, used his best English. 

Well, it means, I am told, that right here in 
the woods we are to spend the night. Here on 



90 The Battle of the Bears 

this very spot, where now the snow is over four 
feet on the level, we shall see one of the grand- 
est of fires blazing, and close beside it will be 
arranged our camp, where, amid our fur robes 
and blankets, and surrounded by our Indians, 
we shall spend the night in comfort, even if our 
roof is the starry heavens. 

But while we have been talking, see how all 
the rest of our party have gone to work. The 
first thing done after the camp was selected was 
to unharness the dogs. It may be necessary to 
tie up some cunning Eskimo dogs in order 
that they may be available in the morning, as 
some of them are so badly trained, or so inher- 
ently evil, that they occasionally skulk awa}'^ in 
the dark forest and give endless trouble. 

When all of this is attended to, each man 
seizes an axe and begins chopping down the dry 
trees, of which there are many close at hand. 
Indeed it was the sight of these dry trees that 
caused the guide to select this spot for the camp. 
We must have plenty of wood for the great fires. 
We notice that the guide has built a little fire, 
and that he is calling the men to come to it 
with their axes. 

"What is that?" we ask. 

It is to save the axe from breaking to pieces. 
So great is the power of the frost on the steel of 



The Winter Camp in the Snow 91 

the axe, that often in the hands of a powerful 
chopper, in the intense cold, as many as three 
axes in one evening have been broken in pieces 
as though made of glass. 

For the first time to-day we now complain of 
the terrible cold. Well, it is little wonder, for 
the rims of our big fur cap and fur hood are 
completely covered with frost and rime. It is 
indeed fearfully cold, and as no supper will be 
ready until all the wood needed for the night is 
cut, the great fire made, the camp arranged and 
the dogs fed, we had better take an axe and show 
these Indians that we can handle it fairly well 
in cutting down trees. 

The Indians surprise us by saying that a good 
sharp axe was put into our dog-sled specially for 
us. Yes, the guide knew that a little healthy 
exercise each evening while the camp was being 
prepared would do us good. There are no 
'' dead heads " on these routes. Everybody is 
expected to do what he can. It helps things 
along and keeps everj^body from freezing to 
death. So here goes, and we let the Indians see 
what we can do. 

It is delightfully healthy work, and, too, it 
helps drive away those dangerous chills which 
werecreeping down our back, in spite of the heavy 
clothing and big fur overcoat which we wear. 



92 The Battle of the Bears 

The guide has now selected the spot for the 
camp. It is the most level place he could find. 
Calling to his aid a couple of the Indians, the}- 
cleverly use their big snow-shoes as shovels to 
clean away the snow. They pile it up in gi-eat 
banks around the three sides. On the fourth 
side of the square, which is the one where the 
wind is blowing from the camp, they merely 
toss the snow a little to the right or left and 
trample it down. There the great logs are 
piled. The kindling is put under, the blaze is 
started, and soon there is a glorious log fire 
burning brilliantly. 

Now that enough w^ood has been cut, we help 
to arrange our beds in the square hole, dug in 
the deep snow. We take our great rolls of 
blankets and fur robes from our sleds and pile 
them, for the present, back against the big snow 
Avail farthest from the fire. A buffalo skin or 
two on the ground near the fire will suffice until 
after supper and prayers. Now our faithful 
dogs must be attended to. They have dragged 
their heavy loads and, for part of the way, 
us also, since the early starting, and yet have 
not had a mouthful to eat since last night. 

We have had four or five meals since then, so 
it is no wonder that they are hungry. But do 
not imagine that we are treating them unkindl3^ 



The Winter Camp in the Snow 93 

Dogs thrive better on only one meal a day. If 
we were to give them a good breakfast or a sub- 
stantial dinner, they would be unfitted for do- 
ing efficient service. So, by long experience, it 
has been found that the best and in the end the 
kindest way, is to just give the dogs one good 
hearty meal a day, and that at the evening 
camp-fire when the day's work is done. 

With this explanation, let us now, with the 
Indian dog-drivers, give them their supper, for 
which in their noisy way they are asking, as 
they well know it is their feeding-time. Thirty- 
two fish are required for our sixteen dogs. As 
they are frozen about as hard as rocks, it would 
be very cruel on our part to feed them to the 
dogs in this condition. They must be thawed 
out at the fire. None but the most careless, 
lazy dog-drivers neglect this work. Our own 
men attend to it. They roll a big log quite 
close to the roaring fire, and there against it 
they stand up the thirty-two fish. 

When the fish begin to sizzle in the great heat, 
the dogs can hardly keep from quarrelling among 
themselves as they strive for the places nearest 
to their appetizing supper. Sometimes a couple 
of great fellows do attack each other, and then 
there is a big battle unless we can quickl}^ stop 
it, as the three comrades of each fighting dog 



94 The Battle of the Bears 

rush to his assistance. A fight begun by two> 
generally ends in a battle royal, with four on a 
side. 

It is interesting to notice, how the dogs that 
work together, in the same train, become so at- 
tached to each other that they are ever ready to 
fight together, against all others, even if some 
of those they fight are their own blood relations. 

Now that peace reigns once more, and the fish 
are not only well thawed out, but about half 
cooked, let us go and help in the fun of feeding 
the dogs. 

Each Indian driver is very jealous about his 
dogs. If we watch, we shall see how some of 
them, every night, try to secure the eight largest 
fish in the pile, for their own trains. The others, 
however, have something to say about it, and so 
as a general thing the arrangement reached is 
about right. Each train is fed separately, and 
so as some dogs can eat much more quickly than 
others the drivers have to be alert, or the more 
powerful dogs would steal from the weaker. To 
guard against such things and more especially 
against attacks from the big fellows of other 
trains, each dog driver has his heavy whip in 
his hand or belt, and woe to the invader who 
comes within range of that powerful, lead-loaded, 
sixteen-foot lash 1 



The Winter Camp in the Snow 95 

We have made casual allusions in several 
places in our story to the guides. These re- 
markable men deserve more than such slight 
reference to them. In the extraordinary ability 
they display, and the achievements they ac- 
complish, they are worthy of our highest praise 
and admiration. All, even of the Indians, are 
not so fully gifted as ever to make efficient guides. 
Perhaps not one in twenty has the gift in full 
perfection. But those who have the marvellous 
accomplishment are worthy of a nation's esteem 
and honor. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 
Shoeing the Dogs 



Dining under difficulties. Congenial companions. Evening prayers 
outdoors, even when fifty degrees below zero ! The warm bed of 
robes and blankets. "Don't stir." What it means. The early 
call and hasty breakfast. 



VII 

SHOEING the dogs is quite a unique in- 
stitution. Their feet suffer from various 
causes. Sometimes on the sharp, broken, 
or glare ice, the pads of the feet wear thin, and 
so become sore and bleed very much. Then 
again, in the hilly country where the blizzard 
winds have drifted the snow away into the val- 
leys, often, in the rough places, the nails of the 
toes of the dogs get broken, or sharp points are 
driven through the webbing between the toes. 
In addition to these and similar accidents that 
occur from the wild, hard travelling, it some- 
times happens that the dogs of civilization freeze 
their feet very badly. 

Pure Eskimo dogs have harder, tougher 
feet than those of any other breed. To them 
accidents very rarely occur. With other dogs 
it is quite different, and so it is necessary for a 
travelling outfit like ours, to have included in 
it from a hundred to a hundred and fifty dog- 
shoes. These shoes are made out of a firmly 
woven English cloth of wool, and are like a 
mitten without the thumb. 

L OF C. ^^ 



lOO The Battle of the Bears 

At first the dogs decidedly object to bemg 
shod. They seem humiliated at having these 
clumsy-looking things on their feet. It is only 
for a little while, however, that they object to 
them or try, with their teeth, to tear them off. 

Dogs are sagacious creatures, and it is not 
long before they realize how comfortable their 
poor wounded feet are in these warm, woollen 
shoes. When this knowledge has once been 
gained, their constant efforts are being put forth 
to induce their masters to put them on. They 
will pretend that their feet are very sore or 
frozen, when really there is nothing wrong with 
them. They will sometimes, in the night, try 
to pull the covering off* the bed of the sleepers 
in the camp, to induce them to get up and put 
shoes on them. 

The two big pots on the fire have been engaging 
the attention of the guide and another Indian, 
and now they tell us their supper is cooked. 

A large tanned deerskin serves as a table- 
cloth when we have no better. This is spread 
on the ground in the camp, as close to the fire 
as it is possible for us to endure the heat. On 
this table cloth are arranged our plates, knives, 
forks and cups. Then each settles down on the 
robe seat at the place assigned him, and the hot 
meat and boiling tea, with whatever else our 



Shoeing the Dogs loi 

sleds can supply, are placed before us. We in- 
voke heaven's blessing on our food and then 
we all, with splendid appetites, begin our even- 
ing meal. 

The cold is so intense that we dare not remove 
our caps or gloves, or we should soon suffer even 
while we were so near the fire. Then, the 
metal handles of our knives and forks, even if 
almost hot when we begin, would soon be too 
cold to be handled by the naked hand with 
safety. We are surprised at the quantity of fat 
meat and the heartiest of food that we readily 
consume. But the order is " eat away ; fill up 
the furnace, and you will get through the long 
cold night the better." 

The food used by myself and men, was, of 
course, in some measure dependent on what we 
could secure from the hunters, and also in the 
supplies we were able to import from the outside 
world. But in our earlier years these latter 
supplies were not many, on account of the dis- 
tance and expense of transportation. The flour- 
ishing city of Winnipeg was then non-existent, 
and St. Paul in Minnesota was our nearest 
market town. To it supplies came by the long 
trains of Red River ox carts. Once a year 
they would come by way of Hudson Bay and 
York Factory, across the Atlantic from England, 



I02 The Battle of the Bears 

and then be carried by the Indian boatmen 
some hundreds of miles into the interior. The 
result was, in any case, the cost of supplies from 
the outside world was so great that we were 
obliged to live on the products of the country. 
The last great herds of buffalo were not destroyed 
as yet on the plains, so for a year or two we saw 
the wharves at the Norway House trading post 
loaded down with great bags of pemmican. 
Some of this we were able to buy as long as it 
lasted, and on it my guide and dog drivers fared 
sumptuously. When it was all gone and no 
more could be obtained and I had to import and 
give them flour and pork as a substitute, they 
mourned over the change of diet and sighed for 
the pemmican and dried meat of the buffalo, 
gone now, alas, never to return. 

I must confess I never had much of a liking 
for the pemmican. It was so hard that an axe 
was the best implement with which to cut it, 
yet my Indians would, with their great strong 
brilliant white teeth, attack it with great delight 
and consume great quantities of it, washing it 
down with many cups of strong black tea. 
Neither my teeth, nor those of my wife, seemed 
able to grapple with it in its crude state. So, 
rather than starve when we had nothing else, it 
was softened and cooked like a kind of hash. 



Shoeing the Dogs 103 

We survived on it but it was generally so strong, 
or high, in its flavor, that neither of us were 
sorry when we heard the Saskatchewan boatmen 
say to the officers of the Norway House Fort : — 
" We will never bring you any more great boat- 
loads of pemmican." 

We were generally called by the guide at 
three o'clock each morning. The nights were 
sometimes so bitterly cold that the fire was kept 
burning, and so then it was not difficult to pre- 
pare the early breakfast. 

" Eat plenty ! " says Tom, " for we have the 
long traverse ere we get our next meal." 

This " eat plenty," is sometimes easier said 
than done. With my Indian men there was 
never any trouble in carrying out the command, 
but I must confess there were times when I 
begged off, even if earnestly pressed by the good- 
hearted men. 

To a person accustomed to the ordinary diet 
of civilization, to be routed out of a camp bed in 
the snow when it seemed that he had only got 
really warm and comfortable, and was in his 
first dreamless refreshing sleep, is, to say the 
least, a trial of the flesh. Then to find that the 
temperature outside of his warm bed is any- 
where between forty and sixty below zero and 
this he has to face while he is preparing for 



I04 . The Battle of the Bears 

breakfast makes him step around lively and be 
on the lookout for frost bites. 

Tom, the guide, who is a bit of a wag, as well 
as the morning cook, facetiously inquires : — 

*' What will you have to-day, sir? Saskatche- 
wan pemmican or Chicago pork ? " 

As one is hard and rancid and smells like de- 
cayed soap grease, and the other is in chunks, 
four inches square, of solid fat without a streak 
of lean in it, it is often hard to make a choice 
and so, if we dared, we would gladly refuse both. 
But the importunate : " You must eat plenty, 
sir," of your Indian comrades, who know what 
they are talking about, constrains you to force 
down with cups of strong tea, the not very daint}'^ 
food. To start off on some of these long runs 
which were before us on many a cold wintr}^ day 
without a good meal of nourishing food, was to 
run a great risk of perishing. The furnace must 
be kept well supplied with that which furnishes 
the greatest quantity of heat, and so the fatter 
the food, the better, even if it was far from being 
agreeable to the appetite. Fortunately this 
forcing oneself to eat did not bring on indiges- 
tion, dyspepsia, or any kindred ill. 

And when the question was again laughingly 
asked : " Pemmican or pork ? " the likely reply 
was, " a goodly quantity of both." 



Shoeing the Dogs 105 

It is impressive to worship God out here in 
the woods amidst such strange surroundings. 
There are no human beings nearer us than the 
loved ones we parted from this morning, and 
they are now fifty miles away. The Indians, 
who have done everything that is essential for 
our comfort and safety during the night, have 
come into the camp and say they are ready for 
prayers, so we will hold our evening service. 

Indians are called reserved and stoical, but our 
companions are a happy, joyous lot of men. 
There are no sullen, sulky ones among them. 
They are good Christians, and I have tried to 
teach them that they ought to be the happiest 
of men. Children of the King and heirs of a 
blissful immortality, why should they be other- 
wise than happy ? So I encourage them to be 
joyous and bright, and to say all the pleasant 
things they can, and to laugh themselves and to 
make the rest of us laugh as much as possible. 
We need it all to help keep up our courage, for 
many are our trials, and fierce at times are the 
battles we have to wage against the hardships of 
these long, cold journeys. But when we say : 
" Let us worship God," all the fun and pleas- 
antries cease, and reverently and devoutly they 
seat themselves near us. No matter how terrible 
the cold, they reverently uncover their heads, and 



io6 The Battle of the Bears 

nothing can induce them to put on their caps, 
although I should have perished if I had tried 
to imitate them in this respect. 

What shall we sing ? There is nothing better 
than that grand old hymn : 

^' Glory to Thee, my God, this night, 
For all the blessings of the light ; 
Keep me, oh, keep me, King of kings, 
Beneath Thine own Almighty wings." 

My Indian companions were generally good 
singers. In fact it is a qualification which I 
sought in the dog-drivers which I selected. The 
Indians have no native music that amounts to 
much, but they quickly pick up our tunes and 
sing them very sweetly. 

The hundred and third Psalm and the four- 
teenth chapter of St. John are favorite camp-fire 
chapters. Our dusky companions have their 
own Bibles and hymn-books with them, which 
are printed in the beautiful Syllabic characters. 

Our converted Indians very seldom leave the 
books behind them when on their summer and 
winter trips. Since we have the long evening, 
and the men are not so tired as they will be 
some da3^s later on, and this is the night of our 
praj^er service at the distant Indian church, we 
will hold a little service of our own out here in 



Shoeing the Dogs 107 

the great wild forest. How sweet the promise, 
" Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of 
the world," which comes to us at such times and 
places as these. How blessed was our service ! 
Every Indian in our party led in prayer. As 
these petitions were offered up in their own lan- 
guage, we were touched at hearing how very 
kindly and lovingly they asked God's blessing 
and preserving care to rest on the loved ones far 
away in the village and mission homes, and also 
upon each of us who, here with them, were 
making this journey for the purpose of doing 
good. 

"Missionary, if you will get ready for bed, 
we will make your bed ready for you, and then 
tuck you in." 

That is what the guide has just said to me. 
It sounds rather funny, does it not, to hear this 
big Indian gravely talking of " tucking " into 
bed, as though I were a little laddie three or four 
years old ? But it is all right, as we shall 
speedily find out. 

It does seem a pity to have to leave this glori- 
ous fire and be tucked in under our fur robes, so 
we will ask the guide to give us another half 
hour to enjoy this calm, quiet, brilliant night, 
where we are so cozy, even if a few feet away it 
is forty or fifty degrees below zero. 



io8 The Battle of the Bears 

Very cheerfully he complies with our request, 
for these Indians are the kindest and most 
obliging of men, and to make our half hour 
more pleasant, he piles on the fire some great, 
dry spruce logs. The sparks that fly up in mul- 
titudes have remarkably long tails. Whether 
this is because of the cold or from the character 
of the wood, I do not know. 

But our half hour is up, and now for bed. 
We do not take ojff any garments here when 
making preparations for our night's rest. 

The only disrobing that I did was to unbutton 
my shirt collar. It is difficult to sleep well if 
the neck is tightly bandaged. I then pull on 
the long buifalo skin boots, fur side out. You 
cannot improve on Nature. The big ear-laps of 
my fur cap are tied down, and then I pull up 
and fasten the big fur hood of my warm blanket 
coat which I wear over all of the clothes that I 
have been able to put on. Thus are we rigged 
out so as to have some hours of refreshing sleep, 
here in this wintry, forest camp. Now the guide 
says : 

" Your bed is ready for you, and if j^ou will 
get down into it I will cover you up and tuck 
you in." 

As quickly as we can, we get down and roll 
into position in our bed. We find that the In- 



Shoeing the Dogs 109 

dians have spread out a heavy fur robe and a 
big Hudson's Bay blanket under us. As about 
a foot of snow was left on the ground, it evens 
off the rough places and fills up the hollows, and 
so makes a very comfortable bed. 

Melt ? Not a bit of it. There is too much 
frost around for the warmth of our bodies to get 
near it, and so it will be just as dry in the morn- 
ing as it is now. 

'' Now, guide, on with your coverings." 

First a couple of warm blankets, and then a 
great fur robe are spread over us, and at once 
the '' tucking in " begins. 

Beginning at my feet, the guide tucks in the 
warm blankets and robes around me. There is 
nothing rough or careless about his movements, 
yet everything is done most thoroughly. He 
ends by throwing the ends of the blankets over 
my head and packs them down under my 
shoulders. Smother 1 Well I thought I should 
at first, and threw the blankets ofi" telling the 
guide I needed fresh air. He only laughed at 
me and said that I would not smother, that the 
Indians sleep with their heads covered up, and 
so do all people who live out in such cold coun- 
tries. Then with a serious look he said that I 
must keep my face covered or else I would freeze. 

I used to crook my arms and keep them up 



no The Battle of the Bears 

over my face so as to have more air, and room 
enough to turn that bit of air around. 

The guide's last warning is : " Don't stir." 
This means that until we get up in the morning 
we are to try to remain in exactly the same 
position in which we were, when so thoroughly 
tucked in by the guide. 

" Oh, but I like to turn over two or three 
times in the night." 

" Well, please do not try it here," the Indian 
warningly says. 

"Why?" 

" So long as you keep quiet and do not stir, 
you will be warm and comfortable, but if you 
stir and move around and get the clothing 
loose, you may let the cold air in, and freeze to 
death without awakening." 

We have some other friends — and warm and 
shaggy they are — that will add much to our 
comfort. Jack and Cuffy, my two favorite 
dogs, have been resting on a buffalo robe all the 
evening, instead of curling down in beds in the 
snow like the native dogs. They have only 
been waiting until we are well tucked in, and 
now, here they come and cuddle down as close 
to us as possible. They are capital bedfellows, 
and their great warm bodies against our outer 
fur garments, are heavy weights to keep them 



Shoeing the Dogs 1 1 1 

down, as well as to add to our comfort by the 
additional warmth. I used to allow some of my 
Eskimo dogs to huddle around me, but they 
were so jealous and quarrelsome that I dispensed 
with their company after having been several 
times aroused by finding them fighting for what 
seemed to be the honor of sleeping on my head 1 

Good-night, and pleasant dreams ! — or rather, 
what is better, dreamless sleep. 

" What is that ? Why are the Indians all up 
and talking so excitedly to each other? " 

The sharp ears of the guide heard the distant 
bowlings of a gray wolf. He at once called up 
the other Indians. Fortunately there was 
enough wood cut for an all-night fire. They 
brought in from the sleds their guns and loaded 
them with bullets, then waited. 

As there was no response from other wolves 
to this one that howled out his weird, dismal 
notes, they concluded that it was only a solitary 
old fellow prowling around and not much to be 
feared. So, with one man on guard, they have 
wrapped themselves in their rabbit-skin robes 
and are now again fast asleep. And we imitate 
their good example. 

Snowing in the night ! Yes, furiously, and 
there is over a foot of it on the top of our bed. 
Don't stir, say the Indians, who are up and with 



1 1 2 The Battle of the Bears 

their snow-shoes are throwing out of the camp 
all the snow they can. But it seems to come 
down about as fast as they remove it. 

As Ave are so cozy, covered up by our robes 
and blankets, perhaps we had better stay here 
until breakfast is ready. 

" What time is it ? " 

Oh, quite early — not four o'clock yet. The 
guide says that we must make a long day's 
journey before we camp to-night, so we must be 
away from here by five o'clock at the latest. 

Now spring up ! Throw your outer robes and 
blankets oflP with a sudden effort, or you will get 
in your face some of the snowdrift that is on 
you. Shake yourself well and throw that robe 
around you as the Indians do their blankets, 
and come and sit down here as close to the fire 
as possible without burning. It is not so com- 
fortable and cozy as it was last night, now that 
the snow-storm is raging. But we have to ex- 
pect some storms and blizzards in this land. We 
do not enjoy our breakfast. It is trying to have 
to eat out in a snow-storm, withno roof over us and 
the fire in danger of being smothered by the snow. 

" Some snow has got down my neck." 

" I am very sorry for that. You should not 
have let your hood fall down. It is really dan- 
gerous to let such things happen." 



Shoeing the Dogs 113 

" Can we not have a wash this morning? " 

Washing here is one of the lost arts. You can 
have a dry rub with a towel, but beyond that it 
is not safe to go. I once tried the methods of 
civilization and suffered for many weeks after. 
It is dangerous to apply water to either the face 
or the hands out where the mercury is frozen for 
weeks at a time. 

" This is really dreadful ! I wonder if the 
people at home have any idea of what some of 
the missionaries have to suffer to carry the glad 
tidings of salvation to the poor wanderers who 
are as the lost sheep in the wilderness." 

Oh, you have seen and suffered but little thus 
far. Wait until a real blizzard catches you out 
on some great lake, where for hours and hours 
you are at the mercy of that most dreaded and 
treacherous of all storms. Wait until the trav- 
elling becomes so difficult that your poor, tired 
dogs have all they can do to pull the sleds, and 
so you have to trudge along until every bone 
and muscle seems full of pain, while your feet 
are so wounded and bleeding that life seems a 
prolonged agony. Yet with set teeth and frozen 
face you must rush on and on for days, while 
the trail is marked by the blood that finds its 
way through stockings, moccasins and snow- 
shoes. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 
The Famous Indian Guides 

Able to travel independent of sun, stars, or trail. Night travelling. 
Light and shadows. A laughable incident. The missionary's 
plunge in the snowdrift. The glorious auroras. 



VIII 

To understand intelligently the wonderful 
achievements of the guides of the North- 
land we must have in mind a fairly 
good idea of the vastness and the character of 
the country through which, with such accuracy 
and speed, they are able to lead the parties com- 
mitted to their care. Two hundred miles, 
through an unsurveyed, trackless, primitive for- 
est, seems, and is, a long distance ; but when that 
is doubled or extended to a thousand miles, we 
have to confess that we are face to face with a 
problem beyond solution by the ordinary mind. 
And yet it is well known that there are, and 
were, as old men still surviving will testify, 
guides who could without mistake or hesitancy 
take the despatches of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany from York Factory to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, or from Norway House to the Mackenzie 
River. 

My longest single trip was over three hundred 
and fifty miles. It was through a pathless re- 
gion of the wildest description. We met on the 
whole route only two small bands of Indians. 

"7 



1 1 8 The Battle of the Bears 

Yet my guide never hesitated, but pushed on 
and on, as accurately as though he were travel- 
ling on a well-defined highway. Explain it as 
we may, we cannot but admit that these men 
are gifted with some intuitive perception not 
granted to the majority of people. We have 
read wonderful things about them, much that 
seemed almost incredible, and yet unhesitatingly 
I here state that after being in the field, witness- 
ing as I did so many practical illustrations of 
their extraordinary abilities, I can endorse all 
the high encomiums that have been written 
about them. 

Men who for hundreds of miles could find 
their way through trackless forests, no matter 
how great their density or gloom, must command 
our admiration. Sunshine or clouds, calm or 
storm, sultry heat or intense cold, made not the 
slightest impression upon them. The best guides 
were men of great equanimity. There was al- 
ways an evenness of mind that nothing could 
upset. If well supplied with rations, and their 
pay assured, no complaints or grumblings were 
ever heard from them. Once informed of what 
was expected of them, they wasted no time on 
the trail, and no matter how remote the out sta- 
tion or post, be it two, or five, hundred miles 
distant, they conscientiously and thoroughly 



The Famous Indian Guides 1 1 9 

carried out their contract. It was inexplicable 
to watch them, as with perfect confidence they 
guided us on, as well when the skies were cov- 
ered with dull leaden clouds — and to me it was 
impossible to tell north from south without a 
compass, as they did when the skies were bright 
and cloudless. 

Sometimes, prompted by curiosity, and per- 
haps admiration for some clever feat, I tried to 
find out if there was any secret formula by which 
they accomplished such splendid results ; but 
about the only answer I ever received was a look 
of good-natured surprise that I should think 
that anything they could do was more than the 
ordinary occurrence of life. But if I Avas in ig- 
norance of how they did it, I was for years the 
fortunate observer and fellow traveller of num- 
bers of these guides who could not only in the 
daytime, but, what was more wonderful, could 
travel with the same unerring accuracy by night. 

Of course, when the stars were shining with 
all their wondrous brilliancy, so characteristic 
of the majority of those wintry, northern nights, 
we could understand or imagine that by them 
our guides were shaping their course. Yet as 
we travelled, night after night, from sundown 
to sunrise, there were times when neither star 
nor flashing auroras were visible. Clouds were 



I20 The Battle of the Bears 

above us everywhere, and the only reason why 
we were not shrouded in dense darkness, was 
the fact that the whole ground was covered with 
snow, and, in purest white, it hung on every 
tree and mantled every rock. Snow in such 
abundance and purity seems to have the power 
of dissipating the inky darkness, or of giving 
out a glimmering light. In the dense forest, 
this light was very little, yet it was sufficient for 
our guide, ^vho, w^ith confidence and accuracy, 
strode on through the gloom without ever being 
puzzled or at fault. 

The question naturally arises, Why this night 
travelling? Surely there was sufficient time, 
considering the early hour in the morning when 
the breakfast had been eaten at the distant 
camp-fire, for all that should reasonably be 
asked of men and dogs ere, at the close of the 
day, the guide had selected the next camping- 
place ! The reason why we and so many others 
did our travelling by night was on account of 
that painful disease, called snow-blindness. It 
is caused by the dazzling rays of the sun shining 
uj^on the brilliant snow. The first sensation of 
the coming of an attack was excessive weeping. 
Tears flowed like rain. The next sensation was 
intense agony as though caused by red hot sand 
thrown into the eyes. Then if the disease was 



The Famous Indian Guides 121 

not speedily checked, total blindness soon fol- 
lowed. Two different winters I suffered from it 
and it was months before I fully recovered. 
Goggles and other kinds of sun glasses afford 
but poor protection. 

It is feared and dreaded by whites, Indians 
and Eskimo alike as the most terrible of the 
scourges of the Northland and to escape from its 
attacks and sufferings, my men and I were 
obliged, some weeks every year, to make most 
of our journeys by night. On one long trip our 
splendid guide led us on for nine consecutive 
nights, from sundown to sunrise, without a 
single miscalculation or error in the route. 
Some of these night runs were through the for- 
ests. Our progress then was necessarily slow. 
When we had the great ice-covered lake over 
which to travel, we sometimes made as much as 
seventy miles in a night. When on those long 
lake stretches, the guide, wherever possible, led 
us on so that at least twice during the night we 
could strike some point of headland where wood 
could be found in quantities by which a meal 
could be quickly prepared. With such appetites 
as that rapid travelling gave us, the meal was 
much enjoyed, even if it were amid the snow- 
drifts, out under the stars, and with the mercury 
frozen. But — with all his alertness — it was not 



122 The Battle of the Bears 

possible to find what did not exist, and so there 
were some cold — yes, bitterly cold — nights, when 
it seemed as though we must perish ere the long 
hours of darkness passed, when, without fire or 
shelter, all that we could do was to gnaw a meal 
off of our frozen food and to rush on. 

For days together there was not the least 
vestige of a trail, or other sign visible to inex- 
perienced eyes, to indicate the right direction, 
but to the guide's keen vision the whole route 
was as clearly marked out as a well-beaten road. 
When going on a long trip of four to six weeks 
I generally took with me four trains of dogs. 
This meant in addition to the guide, three dog- 
drivers. After the first winter I generally drove 
one of the trains myself. So, as there were the 
guide, three dog-drivers, and the missionary, as 
well as sixteen dogs to feed, the first question in 
packing our load was, How much food do we 
require for this long journey ? We could not, 
as in summer, depend much upon our guns. 
The bear and beavers were all denned up. 
Ducks and geese were away off in their sunny 
homes in the Southland. Fish were under the 
ice, that was from four to ten feet thick. So our 
sleds had to hold, and our dogs had to draw, 
sufficient nutritious food to last until we re- 
turned, or at least to keep us alive until we 



The Famous Indian Guides 123 

could reach some Indian village or Hudson's 
Bay Company's trading post, where we could 
replenish our supplies. 

We found it never safe to depend on getting 
supplies from pagan Indians. They might be 
able to furnish us with fish for our dogs, but 
unless they had had the good fortune to kill a 
moose or deer just at the time of our arrival, we 
usually found them in such a condition of semi- 
starvation that out of sympathy we shared with 
them our not over-abundant supply, and suf- 
fered accordingly, ere we reached some friendly 
post of the traders, who would generally sell 
us something that enabled us to continue our 
journey. 

It was interesting to see how cleverly and 
safely all the necessary things were packed in 
the well-tanned deerskin wrappings on the four 
dog-sleds. There was quite a knack in doing it, 
and, as I never acquired the art, I always left to 
the more experienced guide not only the duty 
of seeing that everything essential for the jour- 
ney was secured ere we left, but also the careful 
packing of the loads. 

The necessity of thus well securing the load 
will be understood when it is remembered that 
the sleds were only eighteen inches wide, and 
often piled over three feet high. So rough and 



124 The Battle of the Bears 

uneven was the route that even with the greatest 
care many were the upsets that took place. 
Besides, in the broken, hilly country, it was no 
uncommon thing for dogs and sleds to go tum- 
bling down the steep ravines or hillsides, often 
into deep snowdrifts scores or even hundreds of 
feet below. Yet the load had been so well built 
up and fastened on, that seldom was it even dis- 
arranged, or was anything found to be missing 
when the day's journey ended. 

A laughable incident occurred on one of these 
journeys, in which my mishap afforded amuse- 
ment to a brother missionary who was my fellow 
traveller in this trip, as well as to the Indians of 
our party. 

My sled, as usual, was well packed and, as the 
travelling was not very heavy, I frequently 
jumped upon my load and rode, where the 
snow was not deep and my dogs had no trouble 
in getting along. Suddenly we came to the top 
of a long, steep hill which ends in what the 
Indians call the Wolf's Cove. 

The reason the snow was so thin on the ex- 
posed high parts, was because the winds had 
carried it all down into the ravines and valleys. 
How much there was in one of these ravines I 
was soon to know. As the tracks of the guide's 
snow-shoes were plainly visible on the hill, my 



The Famous Indian Guides 125 

dogs, which were in the lead, followed directly 
in them. On and on we went until we began 
the rapid descent. As we dashed down, I heard 
the warning cries of my men behind me, but it 
was too late. With increasing momentum on 
we went, until, in spite of the speed of the dogs, 
the heavy sled went over them, dragging them 
and me down into the heavy drifts below. As I 
disappeared, head first, in the deep snow, the 
last sound I heard was the merry laughter of my 
travelling companions who had wisely halted 
their dog-trains on the top of the hill. 

They say that they had to drag me out by the 
heels, and that for some time after I was a little 
more cautious in my adventurous dog-travelling 
journeys. 

To the traveller, when storms are not raging 
or clouds darkening the heavens, there are often 
night visions of splendor and magnificence that 
compensate him for many of his privations, and 
that give him glimpses into the wonders and 
glories of the Creator's works, that will abide 
with him forever. 

As every particle of moisture is frozen and 
fallen out of the sky, the stars shine with a 
splendor and vividness unknown in more 
southern lands. If the moon happens to be 
shining, it casts a quite distinct shadow at 



126 The Battle of the Bears 

times. The planets appear in the same vivid 
distinctness as when seen through good tele- 
scopes in other countries. Meteors appear to be 
much more frequent than in other places, and 
for a much longer period the line of fiery light 
they leave remains visible in the heavens. 

But the glory of that land of night visions of 
beauty is the Northern Lights, the aurora bore- 
alis. Hardly a winter night passes but there is 
a greater or less display, as they illumine our 
quiet trail and make us forget our many suffer- 
ings. We never weary of gazing upon their 
flitting, ever-changing glories. Expecting that 
the next shifting of the scene will, if possible, 
give a vision more glorious than that which has 
preceded it, we are kept eagerly on the qui vive 
for what we feel sure will follow. 

This sudden transition from " glory to glory " 
of these mysterious visitants is one of their 
greatest charms. They are never twice alike, 
although there are well defined classes into 
which learned men have divided them. For 
example, some are called the rainbow aurora, 
because they assume the arch-like form. Then 
there are the canopy, or umbrella, auroras, be- 
cause of their resemblance to these things. 
Some bear such wonderful likeness to great 
armies marching and countermarching on ghostly 



The Famous Indian Guides 127 

battle-fields, retreating and advancing, now in 
the flash of decisive victory, and now torn and 
shattered by defeat, that they might justly be 
styled militant auroras. 

Thus amid these beautiful night visions, 
varied at times by awful blizzard storms, when 
death seemed close at hand to overwhelm us and 
the very limit of physical endurance seemed to 
have been reached, we travelled on, night after 
night, led by the well-experienced guide. 

If at times under the terrible suflerings en- 
dured our flesh recoiled from the agonies, and 
we said in our thoughtlessness, " these hardships 
are more than we are called upon to bear, and 
we will make this our last trip of the kind," we 
forgot all about it in the warm welcome we re- 
ceived from those to whom we had gone to 
minister the Word of Life. The joy with which 
they received us and the eagerness with which 
they listened to and accepted the gospel of the 
Son of God, and the beautiful and consistent 
lives those Indian converts led, made all the phj^s- 
ical hardships endured seem as trifles by way 
of contrast. 

Thus in the triumphs of the work were we 
more than repaid for all its hardships. 



CHAPTER NINE 
Indian Boys and Girls at School 

Odd costumes of the youngsters in early days. Early in attendance at 
the warm church — opening services. Happy in their poverty. No 
word for bread — often hungry. "The best little girl." The 
killing of the robin for food. A pathetic story. 



IX 



IN winter the cold is terrible, and the Frost 
King reigns in despotic power, yet the chil- 
dren always come to the Indian Sunday- 
school. 

The school is supposed to meet every Sunday 
morning at nine o'clock, but some of the boys 
and girls come to the church at seven, or even 
earlier. The reason why they come so early is 
because the church is warm and comfortable, 
while the wigwam habitations and other dwell- 
ing places are cold and miserable. Faithful old 
Oig, the church keeper, has spent most of the 
previous night in the church, where he has been 
busily engaged in keeping up roaring fires in the 
two large stoves, that the house of the Lord may 
be warm and comfortable for the services which 
are there to be held. The boys and girls all 
know this and gladly avail themselves of the 
welcome which they know the dear old man 
will have for them, so they hurry away to the 
church and cuddle down on the floor around 
the great warm fires. 

It is delightful to see how soon the cold, 
131 



132 The Battle of the Bears 

pinched looks give place to contentment and 
happiness, and then to hear the quiet, grateful 
words of the children, that they have the big 
church, and that Oig has it so nice and warm 
for them. As later arrivals come in, they are 
welcomed by those who have preceded them 
and are at once given the warmest places. Thus 
until the hour for opening the school arrives, 
there they sit, or stand, happy to be in the 
genial warmth, away from the bitter cold. 

In our Indian Sunday-school in those days, 
not a word of English was heard, and the boys 
and girls were so shy and quiet that not a loud 
word was spoken, or the first sign of a quarrel 
seen. 

The garments of the children, in many in- 
stances, surprise and amuse us. Those who be- 
long to families where the parents have for some 
time past been Christians, are now mostly 
dressed in the clothing of civilization. But 
there are here gathered some who are still 
wholly or partially arrayed in native costume. 
Some garments are of deerskin, beautifully 
adorned with fringe and porcupine work. On 
other suits it is easy to see that loving mothers 
have spent long weeks in the elaborate bead- 
work and silk embroidery, which are so skill- 
fully arranged. Others, however, are of the 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 133 

coarsest reindeer skins, poorly tanned by care- 
less, lazy mothers, and put together so roughly 
that we feel sorry for the fine little boys who 
have to wear such badl^'-'fitting clothes. 

Some have on queer suits that are a combina- 
tion of deerskin, rabbits' skins and cloth, with 
perhaps a pair of leggings made of muskrat 
skins. The caps of the boys are principally 
made of furs, but a few have most beautiful ones 
from the feathered breasts of the loon, the great 
Northern diver. 

There was one comical little boy who had on 
a cloth suit that very much interested us. He 
was a stout, happy little fellow, and for some 
weeks came to Sunday-school wearing a suit of 
clothes so large that we could not understand 
the mystery, until we found out that the one in 
which the short, fat lad came to school at nine 
o'clock, was the same which his long, tall father 
had on when he walked in to the eleven o'clock 
service. The sleeves of the coat were so long 
for the boy that they had to be turned back and 
pinned at the shoulders. The legs of the 
trousers were turned up and fastened at his hips, 
and the coat tails seemed, in some way, to be 
laid in folds at the back. 

But comical as he looked, he seemed to be 
happy and comfortable, and nobody laughed at 



134 



The Battle of the Bears 



him, or indeed at any one else, no matter how 
absurd or ridiculous was his dress. The instant 
the school was closed, away hurried the fat little 
boy to his home. Here the clothes were ex- 
changed for a little deerskin, every-day suit, 
while the tall father at once arrayed himself in 
the store clothes. 

The most peculiar feature about the feminine 
apparel was the great blanket which each one 
wore. It was amusing to watch the girls' efforts 
to keep their faces hidden, with only one eye 
visible, while in many cases the girl was so small 
and the blanket so large, that much of it was 
trailing in the snow or on the floor of the church. 

At nine o'clock we opened the school. At 
first I had to arrange all present in three classes, 
as that was the number of teachers we could 
muster. Mrs. Young had charge of the infant 
class, which consisted of all under the age of 
eight or ten years. Badger, our day school 
teacher, had the intermediate pupils, including 
all above the infant class up to the age of sixteen 
3^ears. The others who came were assigned to 
my care. Many of the older people would at 
times come in, and often they would get out their 
flint and steel, strike a light, and have a good 
smoke out of their long pipes, while listening to 
the lesson for the day. 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 135 

The hymns sung were in the Indians' own 
tongue. The Cree is a soft, sweet, musical 
language, very different from some others, which 
are harsh and guttural. A favorite hymn in 
those days, and one still loved, although hun- 
dreds of others have since been translated into 
their language, was : 

Jesus ne te-ta ye moo-win, 

Ispe-mik Kah-ke-e-to-tate ; 
We-yah piko ne mah-me-sin 

Nes-ta-ka ke-e-to ta-yan. 

In English this is : 

"Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone, 
He whom I fix my hopes upon ; 
His trail I see, and I'll pursue 
The narrow way till Him I view." 

They were so fond of singing that we often 
had several of these sweet hymns. Their voices 
were sweet and plaintive and generally good ; 
but many were so shy and so timid that it was 
difficult to find out how much they really could 
sing. 

We concluded the opening prayer by all re- 
peating the Lord's Prayer. The translation of 
one petition in it very much interested me. The 
English prayer, "Give us this day our daily 



136 The Battle of the Bears 

bread," in Indian is, " Me-yah-nan a-nooch 
ka-ke-see-kak ka-ooche pi-ma-tisseyak." This 
literally means : " Give us this day something to 
keep us in life." 

The word " bread," as popularly understood 
by "US, is not used at all by them. In the early 
days, and indeed up to a short time ago, those 
Northern Indians had no agricultural pursuits 
and so knew nothing of wheat or any other kind 
of grain. So as the word " bread " was unknown, 
the translators wisely rendered the prayer as we 
have given it. 

We found, often by bitter experience, that 
hunting and fishing were very uncertain meth- 
ods of obtaining regular and sufficient supplies 
of food. It was generally a feast or a famine. 
When the herds of reindeer were numerous there 
was abundance. This was also the case in the 
spring and fall of the year when the fish, in 
great numbers, could easily be caught. At such 
times even the Indian dogs were fat and good- 
natured. But there were other seasons when 
the game was scarce and the fish had hidden 
themselves away in the deep, cold waters of the 
great lakes. Then there was keen suffering, and 
although the stern, stoical nature of the Indians 
kept them from referring to their hunger and 
want of food, their sunken faces and gaunt forms 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 137 

eloquently told the sad story. Even the children 
were easily trained to go for days without com- 
plaining, when the nets failed to secure the fish, 
or father's gun did not succeed in bringing down 
the hunted deer. 

" That is my best little girl," said an Indian 
father to me one day, as he pointed to a sweet 
little child who was playing with a doll and 
quaint little native cradle on the floor. 

"Why should she be your favorite child?" 
I asked. 

" For a very good reason," he replied. " Of 
all the children I have, she will go the longest 
without food and never cry." 

Is it any wonder, then, that, as we looked over 
the little company of boys and girls gathered in 
our Sunday-school, we were glad and thankful 
when their plump, full faces told us there was 
plenty of food among them? Perhaps it was 
because of the many times when they were so 
hungry, that that petition in the prayer seemed 
so expressive, and we breathed it up more 
earnestly than we had been accustomed to do in 
other lands, where hunger is but little known. 

Various were the clever expedients to secure 
even a little food to lessen the pangs of hunger. 
The boys were early trained as hunters, and even 
the girls were not far behind them. They could 



138 The Battle of the Bears 

make clever snares in which to capture rabbits, 
partridges and other small game. 

The following incident will show not only the 
straits to which the Indians were at times re- 
duced, but will also throw light on some phases of 
the life of these people. 

One beautiful day towards the end of May, as 
we were sitting at our table, Mrs. Young and I 
were delighted to hear the song of a robin, just 
outside of the open window. 

For at least seven long months we had not 
heard the song of a bird. The previous Sep- 
tember, they had all flitted away to the sunny 
Southland, where the warm sunshine abounded 
and where no chilly winds ever blew. Now, 
however, with the blessed spring-time, they were 
coming back, and here on the branch of a tree, 
near our open window, this beautiful redbreast 
perched himself for a time and in joyous strains 
literally flooded our rooms with his melod}^ 
As we listened with great delight to this first glad 
spring song, we said, in quiet tones so as not to 
disturb him, " This sweet song seems like a mes- 
sage of cheer and gladness from our friends three 
thousand miles a\vay. Who knows but in 
coming up from still further South, this robin 
called at our homes and gave them a song in 
which he tried to let them know that he was on 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 139 

his way to tell us to rejoice that the long, cold 
winter was over, and that " the time of the 
singing of birds " had come ? 

But very abruptly indeed was this sweet song 
of the robin, and our reveries which it suggested, 
brought to an end. For suddenly there flew by 
the open window an Indian arrow sent with 
deadly accuracy, and our sweet songster, pierced 
by its sharp point, fell noiseless but quivering to 
the ground. 

Springing up I rushed to the window, and 
there saw outside, but a few feet from me, the 
young Indian hunter whose deadly aim had so 
quickly destroyed our songster and thus forever 
ended his song. 

Angry and indignant at the death of this 
beautiful bird, I was not slow in telling the boy 
how grieved and hurt I was at his w^anton 
cruelty in destroying this robin whose song had 
given us such delight. I gave him quite a 
lecture on the sin of killing these beautiful 
birds that were, in so many ways, a bless- 

With an Indian's stoical nature, the boy 
remained in exactly the same position, with his 
bow in one hand and the fingers of the other 
on the string, during all the time I was pouring 
upon him the words of my protest against his 



140 The Battle of the Bears 

cruel deed. His fine black eyes looked straight 
into mine with fearless confidence, while not a 
muscle quivered or a limb moved. 

Not until it was evident to him that I was 
through with my protest, did he condescend to 
say a word. Then in a slow, deliberate, but per- 
fectly respectful way, he began his reply, and it 
was to this effect : 

" Missionary, we have nothing to eat at our 
home. Father took his gun and went off" three 
days ago to try to shoot a deer, that we all might 
have some food. When he came home last night 
without anything, he told us that when he had 
crawled up close enough to the deer to shoot it, 
he failed, because his old gun, a flintlock, only 
flashed in the pan. The noise it made caused 
the deer to run away, and father could not get a 
chance at any other. So we are all very hungry. 
This morning, mother said to me, ' Willie, if you 
do not want to go to school hungry, you will 
have to go out and shoot some birds that have 
come with the warm south winds.' So I took 
my bow and arrows and am doing as my mother 
told me, for it is very hard to study my lessons 
when I am hungry." 

Saying this, the sturdy little fellow picked up 
the dead bird and arrow and marched off* with 
the air of a conqueror. 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 141 

Seeing I had been too severe on the boy for 
killing the robin, I said to my wife : 

" I will go over to Wille's home and see if he 
has told me the truth, and if there is this excuse 
for the killing of even robins." 

I knew where he lived, and so after breakfast 
and prayers, I sauntered over to his home and 
entered. The first object that attracted my 
attention was Willie busily engaged in cooking 
his breakfast, which consisted of several birds, 
among them being the robin that so lately had 
delighted us with his song. 

The little fellow had the birds picked and 
cleaned and two or three of them were skidded 
on the sharp end of a stick, which was about as 
long as an ordinary cane. Firmly gripping the 
other end, Willie kept turning the birds around 
above a hot fire which was burning on the 
ground. 

Not seeming to notice him, I went over to the 
other side of the fire and began talking to his 
father, who was seated there. From him I 
learned his story exactly as Willie had given it 
to me. 

While respectfully listening to the father I 
kept my eyes on the boy. 

" There is Willie," said the father, apparently 
noticing the direction of my eyes ; '' his mother 



142 The Battle of the Bears 

said to him that if he did not want to go to 
school hungry, he had better go and shoot some 
birds. This he did, and now you see he is cook- 
ing them." 

By this time Willie had his birds cooked 
to suit him. It did not take him long to eat 
them. He needed no knife, or fork, or plate. 
His clever fingers and strong teeth were quite 
sufficient for all carving purposes. Speedily 
were they all devoured, with the exception of a 
few of the large bones. Then after rubbing his 
greasy mouth on the sleeve of his leather coat, 
he seized his cap and was soon off to join his 
schoolmates. 

As I walked back to my home I had to con- 
fess that I had made a mistake in severely scold- 
ing a lad for killing a singing bird. So, more 
than ever, I pitied the condition of these poor 
Indians, who were often so hungry and destitute 
of many of the comforts of life, even of bread, 
that their prayer was, as we have said : 

" Give us this day something to keep us in 
life." 

Willie and I after a while got to understand 
each other and became good friends. He was 
fond of both the day school and Sunday- 
school, and as I heard him repeating the Lord's 
Prayer, I often used to think of that day when 



Indian Boys and Girls at School 143 

he killed the robin so that he would not have to 
go to school hungry. 

Owing to the uncertainty of the food supply, 
our hearts were often filled with sadness at the 
hunger of the people, and our supplies were 
taxed to the uttermost to alleviate their needs, 
especially those of the little ones. It was often 
necessary to take some of the poor, pinched, 
hungry ones into our home and give them some- 
thing to eat ere we could open our Sunday- 
school. 

A homely illustration will give some idea of 
how every article of food was utilized. The 
economical, practical wife of the missionary was 
justly grieved at the high price she had to pay 
for soap of the commonest kind. This great cost 
was due to the expense of carrying such a heavy 
article as a box of soap into the interior. So, to 
save many dollars that she thought could be 
more wisely spent, she resolved to keep all the 
waste fat and oil and bones, and then in due 
time manufacture a quantity of soft soap, or 
even, by the liberal use of salt, make it into a 
passable kind of hard soap which would serve 
for all the coarser work. 

Most energetically and systematically did she 
begin her work, but it never came to soap-boil- 
ing time, for such was the hunger of the poor 



144 The Battle of the Bears 

Indians that every bone was utilized in soup, 
and every scrap of fat meat or oil was speedily 
devoured. 

This was a condition of things that was unen- 
durable and so — now that the great majority of 
the people had become Christians and both fish 
and game were far less plentiful than in previous 
years — the great question was, What can be done 
to improve their temporal condition so that these 
periodical times of semi-starvation, alas, so fre- 
quent, will become only sad memories of the 
past ? 

Some worthy efforts had been made by ener- 
getic missionaries at various places, but these, in 
many cases, had not been carefully followed up. 
At other places nothing had as yet been done, 
but of our primitive efforts and of our successes 
and failures, I will write later. 

With the marvellous development and growth 
of Manitoba and other provinces, the temporal 
condition of the Indians has greatly improved. 
There is plenty of work now for all the men, and 
with the habits of industry to which many of 
the young are being trained in the Industrial 
Schools and elsewhere, there is now but little 
reason for any to suffer want, unless it be those 
who are still in the far off regions remote from 
civilization. 



CHAPTER TEN 
The Old Indian in the Infant Class 



More about the Indian Sunday-school. The old heathen Indian who 
smoked his pipe while the missionary preached. Attended the 
Sunday-school, but would stay in the infant class. His reasons. 
His pathetic words. His mysterious end. 



IN our last chapter we were describing one of 
our Indian Sunday-schools. The story of 
the young Indian boy who was so hungry 
that he killed the robin, took up so much room 
that we were not able to complete our descrip- 
tion of the school. 

I mentioned that there were only three teach- 
ers at first, and so we divided the church into 
three sections, that the classes might not disturb 
each other. 

In my morning Sunday-school I found that 
the infant class was the most popular one. Many 
grown-up infants wanted to be in it, and as the 
reasons they urged for being allowed to do so 
were strong ones, we had to yield in some cases, 
and let them sit down with the little ones. 

One of these old infants was a man of at least 
seventy years. He did not seem to have any 
relatives in the village or among the Indian 
hunters thereabout. He was familiarly known 
by the name of Moosum (grandfather), by all the 
children, although they were a bit afraid of him. 

Our acquaintance began one Sunday morning 
147 



148 The Battle of the Bears 

when he deliberately walked into the service in 
our church and in quite a loud voice shouted 
out : " What cheer ! What cheer ! " the Cree 
mode of salutation, which, according to the tra- 
dition of the Indians, was first brought up from 
the coast, where it was learned from the sailors. 
It has now been thoroughly incorporated into 
the language, although many of them as they 
use it in their greetings generally cry out, " Wat 
cheer ! W^at cheer ! " 

After the old man had shouted out this greet- 
ing, he very gravely kissed several men and then 
walked across the church to where the women 
were seated and kissed about a dozen of them. 
Of course these proceedings on his part quite 
upset the decorum of those not acquainted with 
such scenes in a church during the public serv- 
ice. However, the old Indians were not in 
any way disturbed, and so the service went on 
as usual. 

The next thing the old man did was to take 
out his big pipe, and after lighting it with his 
flint and steel, he began smoking. Even this 
did not disturb the people, but when during my 
sermon he began making some remarks, a couple 
of my old Indians went to him and told him that 
this was the House of the Good Spirit, that they 
were to worship Him, and that no one was to do 



The Old Indian in the Infant Class 149 

anything to disturb the worship, as it might dis- 
please Him. 

These words completely quieted the old man, 
who knew that it would never do to make angry 
the Great Spirit, and so he immediately stopped 
smoking and remained perfectly still until the 
service closed. As this was the first time he 
had ever been in a church, he was much in- 
terested. 

At the close of the service I had some talk 
with him and found him anxious to learn all he 
could about the Book and teachings of the Good 
Spirit. 

That he was a Cree Indian was evident from 
his language. Who he was, and where he came 
from, he would not tell. The people whom he 
kissed when he came into the church, were the 
only ones who knew anything about him, and 
they had met him only in their distant hunting 
grounds. He remained for some time in our 
village and repaid the hospitality which is ever 
extended to strangers by Indians, by aiding his 
entertainers in their hunting and fishing duties. 

He attended all the services of the church, 
and never offered to light his pipe again in the 
Lord's house. He gave the greatest attention to 
all that was said, and seemed anxious to remem- 
ber what he heard. 



150 The Battle of the Bears 

But it was the Sunday-school that most deeply 
interested him. He never missed an opportunity 
to attend, and so it came to pass that we looked 
for him as regularly as we did for the boys and 
girls of our people. The oddest thing about him 
was that he would always go into the infant 
class, although, as we have told you, he was an 
old, old man. 

When I invited him into my class he would 
shake his head and refuse me most decidedly. 
Mrs. Young would say : 

" Surely you will feel more comfortable with 
the larger people than you can with these little 
boys and girls." 

His mind was made up, and we could not 
convince him that he had made a mistake. In 
the infant class he would and did remain. And 
after all, none could blame him, but rather feel 
sorry for him when he gave the reason of his 
choice. 

" This old body," he would say, " has seen 
many winters, but my mind is just as a new- 
born child in the knowledge of the Good Spirit 
as revealed in His Book. So I must sit down 
and learn with the young ones, who are of my 
own age in these things." 

So there we let him sit and listen and learn, 
and, as we saw him so eager and attentive, we 



The Old Indian in the Infant Class 1 5 1 

could see an additional force and beauty in that 
verse of the old and glorious hymn, " Tell me 
the Old, Old Story," which says : 

" Tell me the Story simply, 
As to a little child." 

The end of our acquaintance with him came 
sadly and abruptly, and, as it was in this same 
Sunday-school, we will give it here. 

Our plain Indian church was provided with 
movable benches. These we had arranged every 
Sunday morning for the Sunday-school, then 
when the school was dismissed, Oig, the church 
keeper, and the boys, speedily rearranged the 
seats for the public services. 

One morning after the school was dismissed 
and many of the children had gone out of the 
church for a few minutes in the pleasant sum- 
mer air, this old man, Moosum, instead of also 
going out, as he generally did, while the church 
was being prepared for the large congregation 
that would soon assemble, deliberately gathered 
his big blanket carefully around him and sat 
down on the floor between two of the benches. 
His blanket was so arranged that his head was 
completely covered up in it. 

As his position was such that the seats near 
him could not be put into their desired places, 



152 The Battle of the Bears 

I went over and spoke some kind words to him. 
To my surprise I found him weeping bitterly. 
This much amazed me, as it is very seldom that 
a pagan Indian weeps. In response to my in- 
quiry as to the cause of his weeping, there was 
at first no reply, except what seemed to be some 
strong efforts to get himself under control. 

When he had sufficiently mastered himself he 
sprang up, and throwing back his blanket from 
his head and extending his long right arm, he 
fairly thrilled me as he said in loud, earnest 
tones : 

" Why didn't you come sooner? Why have 
you, our white brothers, who have had this 
Book so long, and knew all these things about 
the Great Spirit, whom you say we might call 
Our Father, been so long in coming to tell us 
these things? What have you been doing? 
These men and women hear them, and so do the 
little children. All who hear them are made 
better because they hear. 

" I once had a wife and little children, but no 
white man came with the Book and told me 
how to act. I was cruel to my family. They 
are all dead. If you had come sooner, we might 
have heard these things and my children might 
have been alive to-day. But the white man 
with the Book did not come, and so I could not 



The Old Indian in the Infant Class 153 

listen and be kind to my children, and now 
they are all dead — dead — dead ! " 

Then, as though the loneliness of his life 
seemed to come to him again, his strong na- 
ture broke into a paroxysm of weeping. 

I tried to say some comforting words, but oh, 
how hollow and full of mockery they seemed ! 
I could not but feel that all he said was true, 
awfully true — that we, who have the Book, with 
all it reveals of the loving Father and His Son 
Jesus, are verily guilty because we are not more 
prompt and zealous in sending and carrying the 
gospel to those who have it not, that their dark 
minds may be illuminated and their cruel na- 
tures made kind and affectionate. 

But the old man now paid not the slightest at- 
tention to what I said. As soon as he could get 
himself under control, his Indian nature again 
so asserted itself that he appeared ashamed at 
having given away to tears. He quickly gath- 
ered his large white blanket around him in 
graceful folds, and with all the dignity of a 
Roman senator, he silently left the church and 
disappeared in the not distant forest. 

We never saw or heard from him again. 
Where he had gone or what had become of him 
I never could find out. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

A Dinner of Potatoes versus 
Three Sermons 



The queen challenge of the pagan Indians. The challenge accepted. 
The good results. The increase of potatoes. The good they ac- 
complished. Sternness necessary to preserve some for seed — how 
accomplished. ' ' Plenty of planting. ' ' 



XI 

" /^ AY, missionary," said the chief to me one 

^^ day, " there are some pagan Indians over 

^-^ at the fort, and they told me to tell you 
that they would come over and hear you preach 
three times on Sunday, if you would give them 
one big meal of your new potatoes." 

'' All right, David," I replied, " tell them to 
come, and they shall have a square meal of po- 
tatoes." 

Come they did. And although they had 
never been in church before, they listened at- 
tentively to all my sermons that day, and I did 
all I could to pack as much of the gospel as pos- 
sible into my addresses. 

Of course they got my potatoes, and it would 
have done you good to see how they enjoyed 
them and the quantity that they ate ! 

We speedily became great friends, and the 
men and their families, with whom we thus be- 
came first acquainted in this queer way, after- 
wards became good, earnest Christians. 

Now having told you this instance of how my 
potatoes helped me preach the gospel, I must 

157 



158 The Battle of the Bears 

tell you how it was that I introduced them 
among some Indians who had them not. Mis- 
sionaries had earlier brought potatoes among 
them, but their cultivation had about ceased, 
owing to the failure of seed. 

Although the summer is very short in those 
high latitudes, yet the hours of sunshine in the 
summer months are so many that the increase 
of vegetation is very rapid. The result is that 
hardy vegetables and grains grow and develop 
with a speed that is almost incredible. 

I succeeded in obtaining from Hamilton only 
four potatoes of the variety which I wished to 
begin with, and unfortunately for me it was so 
late in the season ere I was able to plant them 
— the 6th of August — that that year my crop 
consisted of a handful of little ones about the 
size of acorns. 

However, we were not easily discouraged, and 
so we packed those small potatoes in cotton 
wool and hung them close up to the ceiling in 
our dining-room, over a large stove that was 
kept hot with great wood-fires, day and night, 
from October until May. When we took down 
and examined our potatoes in the spring, while 
they had not been injured by the frost, yet they 
had become so shrivelled by the hot, dry air that 
they were not much larger than garden peas. 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons 159 

The first thought was to throw the poor little 
things out of the door. Then we remembered 
the story of the life and development of the 
dried-up grains of wheat found in the hand of 
an Egyptian mummy, and so we resolved to do 
the very best we could with these small pota- 
toes. 

But, just fancy, planting potatoes that were 
not larger than peas ! Was it not enough to 
discourage anybody ? Though we had gone 
into that land expecting to face difficulties and 
discouragements, this was a severe test. Still 
we resolved to persevere and see if we could not 
get some good out of these small specimens. 
We very carefully prepared the nicest, warmest 
little spot in our garden, and there in rich soil 
we planted the wee potatoes. We saw them in 
due time break through the soil and grow. 
They grew so vigorously and well that when 
they were ripe and we dug them up, we had a 
large wooden pail filled with splendid tubers, 
hardly one smaller than a cricket ball. We 
Avere indeed proud of them and thankful that 
we had persevered. We could not easily pack 
so many in cotton wool and hang them up in 
the dining-room, so we made our cellar as 
nearly frost-proof as possible, and there we 
placed our precious vegetables, taking the extra 



i6o The Battle of the Bears 

precaution to wrap them up well in a couple of 
large prime buffalo skins. When the tempera- 
ture gets down to sixty degrees below zero, Jack 
Frost has a bad habit of getting into places 
where he is not wanted, and so we were resolved, 
now that we had the potatoes, not to let him get 
his hands on them. 

The next spring they were all right, and we 
carefully planted them ; and in the fall, when 
we took up our crop, we had from that pailful, 
six bushels. These were all carefully preserved 
for seed, although our mouths w^atered for some 
of them. Guarding them well from the bitter 
cold through the following winter, we planted 
them the next spring, and were more than de- 
lighted when we measured our ci'op to find that 
we now had a hundred and twenty-five bushels. 

These, our now thoroughly-prepared frost- 
proof cellar kept in splendid order for us, and 
so when the next spring arrived I was able to 
give small quantities to those industrious Indians 
who had prepared land in which to plant them. 
With hard labor, using heavy hoes, the}^ had, as 
it is called, grubbed up the land and fitted it for 
planting. Ample returns rewarded their efforts^ 
and there was great rejoicing at the addition of 
these large mealy potatoes, to the meagre bill of 
fare. 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons i6i 

Knowing so well their lack of " thought for 
the morrow," I insisted on each Indian's de- 
positing in my safe cellar, from five to ten 
bushels apiece, out of his crop for the next 
spring's planting. This they cheerfully did, for 
with all their improvidence they well knew that 
if there was no seed to plant, there would be no 
crop to gather. The result was that my large 
cellar was about filled up with my own supply 
and the various home-made boxes, containing 
the Indian's seed. The rest of the first year's 
crop lasted them for from three to six months. 
Then they tried every expedient possible, almost, 
except resorting to actual force, to induce me to 
let them have their seed potatoes to eat. 

Of course there were many grand, sensible 
old Indians, like Mamanowatum, Soquaatum, 
Kennedy, Timothy Bear, Papanekis and others, 
who guarded their seed potatoes as carefully as 
any white person would have done. But, on 
the other hand, there were numbers of the 
natives, principally those who had lately 
emerged from paganism, and the naturally care- 
less, improvident life which they had led, who 
had to be watched over like little children. At 
my request they would cheerfully give me out 
of their crops, when gathered, several bushels 
to put away for them for planting for the follow- 



1 62 The Battle of the Bears 

ing spring. Then on the rest they would luxu- 
riate with great delight. With lavish hands 
they gave them out to all comers who visited 
them. Fish and potatoes, or venison and pota- 
toes, they considered the grandest fare, and so 
the pot was always boiling, and all who honored 
their wigwams, relative and stranger, pagan and 
Christian, were invited liberally to partake of 
the savory fare. Very few indeed ever refused. 
The result was that in many cases the potatoes 
were all gone ere the winter was half over. 
Then the trouble began. Various, and at times 
comical, were the attempts to induce me to al- 
low them to make raids upon their seed pota- 
toes. 

One Indian came in one morning and said that 
a fine young hunter had asked for his daughter 
in marriage, and so in honor of his having 
given his consent, he thought I ought to let 
him have half a bushel of his seed potatoes to 
eat. 

Another old fellow came and said that as a 
fine little grandson had been born in his home, 
he thought, of course, I would let him have a 
bushel of his potatoes with which to celebrate 
the event. When I found that but few of the 
potatoes, if any, were to go to the young mother, 
I very decidedly refused. 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons 163 

Thus it went on, day after day, and we had 
at times to be very firm and decided with those 
who could get along without the food. When 
there was no pressing need, or case of sad afflic- 
tion that really must be helped, it was no 
trouble for me to say no ; but there were many 
cases when it would have been cruel to refuse. 

" My little daughter fell on the ice and broke 
her hip, and she very poorly, lying in the wig- 
wam so long. She get tired of fish and she cry 
for the potatoes. Missionary, you please give 
me some ? " 

Who could refuse such a petition, put so well 
and quaintly, with the pronouns so mixed, 
by the sorrowing mother? Of course she got 
the potatoes. 

Here enters a man with a sad face. He quietly 
sits down in the kitchen, silent for a while, that 
he may control himself ere he tells his pitiable 
story. His wife is ill with consumption and 
near her end. He says in his broken pathetic 
way, 

*' My wife he is so sick. He once strong and 
well. But now he so thin, once able to eat any- 
thing, now potatoes all gone and we have noth- 
ing but fish. He cough much in the night and 
so weak this morning. I cook the fish, but he 
no able to eat him. He say : — ' if I had a 



164 The Battle of the Bears 

potato I think I could eat him.' So I come to 
ask my missionary if him give me potato for 
my sick wife, him so sick." 

Who could refuse such petitions, and there 
were many such, put so quaintly and yet so 
eloquently ? The pronouns might be oddly 
mixed, but the hearts of the people were in their 
pleas and so they got the potatoes every time 
they could offer such pitiable requests. And I 
must confess to a certain joy in my heart at be- 
ing able to assist them, even if, at the recital of 
their story, there were at times a bit of a lump 
in my throat and a mist in my eyes. 

The long, dreary winter passed, and no 
real cases of necessity were allowed to go un- 
heeded. But the drain on the potatoes was very 
great, and the more thoughtful Indians began 
to shake their heads and say : " Surely there 
will be but few potatoes planted by our people 
this coming season." 

In April, the Frost King still reigns outside, 
for the temperature at night is often below zero, 
but somehow or other the mystery of growth 
has entered the mission cellar, and the potatoes 
are sprouting, and long shoots even find their 
way out between the boards of the rough boxes 
in which they have been so long confined. Po- 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons 165 

tato planting time is still six weeks ahead, and 
so as a matter of prudence for the preservation 
of the vitality of the potato, a call is made at 
the council that all the Indians who have seed 
potatoes stored away in the cellar of the mission 
house, are reqaested to gather there at eight 
o'clock on a certain day and open their boxes 
and rub off all the sprouts that have grown upon 
them. 

This announcement by the chief, at my re- 
quest, causes a good deal of excitement, and 
stirs up very diverse feelings. Some rejoice 
that they are so near planting time and that 
they have carefully stored away seed potatoes 
enough to give them abundance for the com- 
ing year. Others, alas, regret that there has 
been so much sickness in their families and they 
have made so many demands upon their little 
store, that they are surprised to learn that there 
are any left. Indeed, they say, the last few 
times they went and asked the missionary for 
some of their potatoes, they expected to hear 
him say that they were all gone. 

But the missionary, who is present at the 
council and hears all of these and many other 
things, only says : 

" Oh, come along every one of you, — even you 
who have had so many given out to you because 



1 66 The Battle of the Bears 

of the afflictions in your homes. You all re- 
member how we began with only four potatoes, 
and I am certain that we shall find at least that 
many, even in the box of the man to whom the 
most have been given out." 

With their Indian lamps, they are all on hand 
at the time appointed. The cellar door is 
opened, and, with the missionar}'^ leading the 
way, down they all go into the warm cellar, which 
has now been made the size of the foundation of 
the house. 

The Indian bump of locality, according to 
phrenology, is large, and so every man knows 
exactly where his big box of potatoes was 
placed several months ago. 

" Why the cover is nailed on my box," one 
declared. " I don't see any reason why the mis- 
sionary should have gone to the trouble of nail- 
ing it up, when I am sure he had to take all of 
the potatoes out of it for me." 

" Mine still seems ver}^ heavy," another cries 
out. " I wonder what has been put into it for 
all the potatoes which I have had out of it." 

Thus they speak in the dim light to each 
other, as the}' find their big boxes all niiiled up 
and heavy. 

Indian hammers and hatchets are quickly 
produced, the well nailed covers of the boxes 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons 167 

are one after another knocked off, and to the 
amazement and delight of everybody, each box 
is full of splendid potatoes, the only blemish on 
which is the growing sprouts they are now there 
to remove. 

Happy, grateful men they are ! They seize 
nie — they forget their stoical Indian natures, for 
they all shout together and catch me in their 
arms and fairly hug me, as though I were a 
child beloved, in the fullness of their delight. 

What does it all mean ? How has it come 
about? And so I have to still the joyous ex- 
citement and explain. 

This latter is easily done as I tell them that 
while I had been apparently stern and cold to 
those who came and begged for the seed pota- 
toes when there was no excuse but their desire 
to eat, yet, on the other hand no one had come 
with the story of sorrow, or accident, or suffer- 
ing, or old age, when I had refused to give pota- 
toes that would be a blessing. '* But," I added, 
" I have not opened one of your boxes." 

Then the excitement broke out afresh, and 
while Indians do not know how to cheer as 
white people do, they showed, by their demon- 
strative actions, the gladness of their hearts. 

" Just to think ! " they would say to each 
other, '' potato planting time is near at hand. 



i68 The Battle of the Bears 

and we all have plenty of seed because our mis- 
sionary has been as a father to us. We love him, 
of course we do." 

Then as they made another grab for me, I 
hastily escaped out of the cellar and left them 
to their work. 

To thus help them I had to raise each year 
about three hundred bushels of potatoes myself. 
It meant plenty of hard work, but I was strong 
and well, and cheered by the joy that I well 
knew I should be able to give to many persons 
who had but few of life's pleasures. 

Then each Sunday I could preach the gospel 
of salvation better and with greater confidence 
when it had been in my power to make some 
poor needy ones happier in their sad lives dur- 
ing the weeks past. 

" We are saved by hope," and yet somehow I 
like the religion of helpfulness as well as hope- 
fulness. 

As the years went on, many of the Indians 
became wise enough to prepare cellars of their 
own in which to keep their seed potatoes. Still 
they are a singular people, and ever need a firm, 
guiding hand to assist, as well as a loving, 
strong heart to advise and counsel. It has taken 
long centuries for the dominant white race to 
reach the proud position held by it to-day. Let 



Potatoes versus Three Sermons 169 

us be patient with these poor Indians and not 
expect too much from them, so lately removed 
as they are from the habits and customs which 
for long years have been ingrained into them. 



CHAPTER TWELVE 
Ploughing With Dogs 

Civilization following Christianity. A plow wanted. Hesitancy of 
the governor. Importunity triumphed. Ploughing with dogs. 
A home-made harrow. A fair crop of wheat. Women's brave 
work iu mission fields. " My husband, he's melting." 



XII 

" X see, governor, that you have a large num- 

I ber of plows out there on the prairie 
where the Assinaboin flows into the Red 
River. For whom have you had them brought 
into the country ? " 

This question I put, for a purpose, to the first 
governor of Manitoba, shortly after that Western 
Province had been incorporated into the Do- 
minion of Canada and had a regularly organized 
government. 

" Why, Mr. Young," he replied, " those plows 
are part of the supplies we have promised to the 
Indians on the prairies, with whom we are mak- 
ing treaties." 

" But you have more there than these prairie 
Indians will require for some years, and I wish 
you would give me one for my work at Norway 
House among the Wood Crees living there." 

" Oh, it will be some years before we think of 
making treaties with the Northern Indians, and 
I cannot think of letting any of these plows go 
up north." 

Then I told His Excellency about my work 
173 



174 'T^^ Battle of the Bears 

among the Crees, and especially our efforts at 
agriculture, and the laborious work it was, with 
nothing but big, heavy hoes to prepare the land. 
I also gave him a brief outline of my success with 
my potatoes, which much interested him. 

This softened him a little, but officialism and 
routine were still uppermost. However, he re- 
lented enough to say that, if I desired it, he 
would give me a blank form of application, which 
I could fill out and send to the governor and 
council at Ottawa, and, if they favorably consid- 
ered it, he would be pleased to let me have a 
plow. 

" Governor," I answered, " I have had some 
experience of what is called red-tapeism, and it 
has not been at all satisfactory. Life is too short 
in which to waste six months in sending down 
such a request and then in waiting six months 
more for a reply which, in all probability, would 
come from some understrapper of a clerk and 
would only be a refusal, because he little knew 
of the necessities of my request, which had really 
not reached headquarters." 

Still the governor argued he could not see 
what else could be done, although he admitted 
that the number of plows was much greater than 
the Indians of the plains would require for 
years. 



Ploughing with Dogs 175 

This gave me the chance to plead the general 
good-will of our Canadian government towards 
all the Indians, and its uniform custom in the 
past of helping those who were trying to help 
themselves ; and so, as I saw this was my only 
chance, I did so and ended by saying : 

" Representing, as you do, the Queen, before 
the Indians, you might as well do what you know 
would be approved and give me a plow ; and in 
fact, governor, if you don't, I intend to take one. 
So I give you fair warning." 

At these last words, he laughed heartily, and 
said : 

" Well, if that is the kind of a man you are, 
why just go and help yourself." 

And of course I went and took the best plow 
in the pile. 

My Indian boys and I rowed that plow four 
hundred miles north in our rowboat. As it was 
late in the season we could do but little with it 
that year. In the winter, with my dogs, I came 
south again to Fort Garry, now called Winni- 
peg, which was then growing into a village, and 
is now a flourishing western city. There I bought 
thirty-two iron harrow teeth, several bags of 
grain, and other supplies. These we packed 
upon our dog-sleds and, in the usual method of 
dog-travelling, we journeyed several days, camp- 



176 The Battle of the Bears 

ing each night at various points, making our bed 
in the snow. 

Coming down on the trip from Norway House, 
we started with full loads of fish which we 
" cached " at our different camping-places, that 
they might serve as food for our dogs on the 
return trip. By adopting this plan we were able 
to take much heavier loads of home supplies, as 
the item of dog food is generally the heaviest 
part of the load on a long journey. We were 
fortunate in finding our fish at all of our camp- 
ing-places except two. Here the wolves had 
been too clever for us and had devoured our sup- 
ply. Those two nights our dogs did not fare 
badly, as we fed them from our highly-prized beef 
and mutton, which we were carrying to our four- 
hundred-miles-away home in the wilderness, as 
luxuries to vary our monotonous fish diet. Lux- 
uries or no luxuries, the faithful dogs that were 
dragging the heavy loads must not suffer even 
if their great appetites deprived the missionary 
and his family of some prime roasts or savory 
stews. With but few mishaps we reached our 
home with well loaded sleds, in spite of the 
wolves. 

In good time I completed all necessary opera- 
tions for some extended agricultural work, which, 
at the most, in such a place is rather limited. 



Ploughing with Dogs 177 

As birch is the hardest timber in the north 
country, I made the frame of my harrow out of 
it. I bored thirty-two holes and into these 
drove the heated harrow teeth. 

When spring opened and frost left the ground, 
I felt quite equipped for work. I had a good 
plow and harrow, several bags of grain and a 
number of packages of seeds of hardy vegetables 
and even flowers, and plenty of seed potatoes. 
But there was one great drawback which I sup- 
pose many a farmer would have considered an 
insurmountable difficulty. I had no horse or 
ox or mule. There was not even a donkey 
within a thousand miles of me. 

Thus it would seem as though I was poorly 
equipped to commence farming operations. But 
missionaries must be able to get on with what 
they have. If they cannot get what they wish, 
they must make the best of what is available. 
Fortunately for me, I now had a goodly num- 
ber of splendid dogs. Great, big, fat, good- 
natured, well-trained fellows they were. They 
had taken me some thousands of miles every 
winter as I went on ni}^ long journe3^s, carrying 
the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus to tribes re- 
mote. With these dogs the summer was gen- 
erally one long, restful holiday. My Indian 
fisherman, with his nets, kept them well sup- 



1/8 The Battle of the Bears 

plied with the daintiest of whitefish. So I felt 
perfectly justified in breaking in a little on 
their long summer holiday by giving them the 
opportunity of helping me in my summer work. 
With the help of my little son, who loved the 
dogs and was loved by them, I harnessed up 
eight of the biggest and strongest fellows, and 
arranging them in four teams, we attached them 
to the plow, as a farmer would his horses. 

Then the work, or rather, at first, the fun be- 
gan. The dogs had been trained to go on the 
jump, and so our greatest difficulty was to make 
them go slowly. When the word " Marche ! " 
(go), was shouted, they sprang together in such 
unison and with such strength, that the weight 
of the heav}'' steel plow in the stiff soil, was as 
nothing to them. 

I prided myself on being, for a missionary, a 
fairly good amateur plowman, but in spite of all 
my skill and efforts, those eager dogs would 
sometimes get the point of the plow up, and be- 
fore I could get it down into the soil again, they, 
with the pressure off, were away with a rush, 
and there was no stopping them until we 
were at the fence on the opposite side of the 
field. 

We tried driving them with lines, but these 
fretted and annoyed them, and, as I was fearful 



Ploughing with Dogs 179 

that it would imperil their usefulness for winter 
work, I discarded them. 

Sometimes we did fairly well by having my 
little son walk ahead or rather between the two 
dogs of the first team. It was hard work for the 
little fellow, as he frequently tumbled down, 
and then two or three pairs of dogs would run 
over him before they were stopped. But, not a 
whit discouraged, he would scramble up out of 
the furrow and from among the dogs and traces, 
and beg to be allowed to try again. 

Thus we experimented until we got the intel- 
ligent dogs to understand what was required of 
them, and then the work, although of course 
laborious, was a great delight. I plowed up my 
garden and the few little fields I had, and, after 
sowing my grain, harrowed it in with the dogs. 
They liked dragging the harrow better than the 
plow, as I could let them go faster with it. 
They were guided altogether by the voice, and 
so it was not difficult to keep them going in the 
right direction until all the grain was thoroughly 
harrowed in. 

With the plow and dog-teams, I furrowed up 
the land for the potatoes, and employed the In- 
dian lads to drop them at the proper distances 
apart in every fourth furrow. It was such easy 
and rapid work that I was able to go with my 



i8o The Battle of the Bears 

plow and dogs and help a number of the In- 
dians get in their crops. 

Our first crop of wheat ripened perfectly, 
even if we were supposed to be north of the 
wheat line. I cut it with a sickle, which was 
slow work. I threshed it with a flail, and one 
day when there was a steady, strong wind blow- 
ing, Mrs. Young sewed some sheets together and 
then we threw up the wheat and chaff. The 
latter being so much lighter, was speedily 
carried away. 

When the work was finished we were the 
proud possessors of a considerable quantity of 
first-class wheat. 

The question now was, what to do with it? 
There was far more than was needed for seed, as 
the supply of available land was so limited, and 
it was much more to the interest of the Indians 
to raise potatoes than grain. 

There was no grist mill for grinding it within 
a distance of four hundred miles, and the 
methods of transportation were so slow and ex- 
pensive it would never do to send it out. For- 
tunately we had a couple of coffee mills. These 
we kept busy grinding our wheat. We had no 
way of separating the fine flour from the rest, 
and so we cooked it all and found that it made 
capital bread and biscuits. 



Ploughing with Dogs i8i 

For some years this agricultural work went 
on. Before I left the mission among the Crees, 
to go and live among the Saulteaux, I procured 
a span of horses to do the work. 

Some old pagans, as they smoked, and looked 
at the plow, dragged by the strong dogs, tearing 
up the furrows, thought that it was dreadful to 
see the back of the old earth on which they had 
hunted and walked so long, thus torn up and 
scattered by that great, cruel invention of the 
paleface. 

In instructing those who were anxious to ex- 
periment with planting seeds or grain themselves, 
I' had some amusing times. One old fellow, 
whose name was Oostaseemou, had tried pota- 
toes, and, succeeding so well, he asked me one 
spring for some barley. This I giadl}^ furnished 
to him, with all the directions how to manage 
it so as to get the best returns. 

As he lived some distance away from the 
mission I did not hear from him for some time. 
One day, however, with a troubled face, he 
stalked into my house and, in answer to my in- 
quiries as to his success with his barley, he 
exclaimed : 

'' It is contrary stuff, worse than an obstinate 
wife ; grows well, but all upside down. Then, 
when I change it right-side up, it dies." 



1 82 The Battle of the Bears 

This was, of course, a puzzle to me until I 
went with him to his home and found out the 
mystery. 

I wanted to laugh at what I saw, but as it 
would have wounded the feelings of the dear old 
man, I tried hard to keep my face straight while, 
with many words, he described his trouble with 
the obstinate barley. 

Poor old man ! He had been a hunter and 
fisherman most of his days, far away on the 
shore of Hudson Bay. He had never seen the 
first attempt at any cultivation of the soil until 
his coming among us. His success with pota- 
toes greatly delighted him. It was a pleasure to 
see his happiness as he dug up a dozen or score 
of fine, large ones out of a hill into which he 
had, in planting time, put two or three little 
pieces of potatoes. At the risk of impeding 
their growth he had often uncovered the hills to 
see how they had been getting along during the 
season. 

With equal solicitude he had been watching 
his barley. He was pleased at its healthy 
growth, and several times he had dug to the 
roots to see if the barley was forming under 
ground, as his potatoes had done. As there was 
no sign of any such formation, he thought that 
he was in too great a hurry. So he waited a 



Ploughing with Dogs 183 

few days more and then tried again. Still no 
signs of the barley at the roots ! So he waited 
still longer. Then, to his surprise, the heads 
full of barley showed on top. This would never 
do. He surely must have planted the seed 
wrong. So he had gone to work turning the 
barley upside down. But alas ! it withered and 
died. What should he do ? 

Thus he told me of his troubles with the 
obstinate grain, while he showed almost a third 
of his little barley crop lying withered and dead. 
And no wonder, for the fine roots were in the 
air and the green, plump barley heads packed 
under the ground ! I explained the growth of 
the barley to him, and thus comforted him. He 
quicky tried to replant the barley, but it was all 
in vain. All he had so rudely disturbed 
resented his actions and refused again to grow. 

For an old Indian, he became quite an adept 
at raising various things. His garden was a 
very good one. In after years he often laughed 
at his first experience with barley and of his 
efforts to improve on Nature's plan. 

Thus year after year, we worked and toiled on. 
Soon it became possible, and even imperative, 
that I should be much away from home, not 
only during the winter, but also during the sum- 
mer months. Macedonian calls for the gospel 



184 The Battle of the Bears 

were coming in from every quarter. So I ar- 
ranged to leave the work at the mission house 
in charge of my brave, practical wife, who, with 
Indian assistants, could manage every depart- 
ment of it, while, by canoe in summer and by 
dog-trains in winter, I travelled over a vast mis- 
sion field, which was larger than either England 
or the State of New York. 

All honor to the brave women who are doing 
such grand work on many an isolated mission 
field ! The world does not hear half as much 
about them as it should, or give to them the 
praise they so well deserve. We all rejoice that 
their numbers are so increasing and that b}'- their 
self-denying toil and tact and consecration, they 
are accomplishing such glorious results. Other 
pens are writing and will yet record their glo- 
rious deeds. 

M}^ joy is here to make mention of the one 
whose trip with me to that North Land was our 
honeymoon. There for long years she uncom- 
plainingly shared in the hardships of that remote 
station where we were hundreds of miles from 
civilization, from the nearest white home and 
from the post-office. 

When I was on my long journeys, often of six 
weeks' duration, by canoe in summer and dog- 
train in winter, the brave wife was all alone 



Ploughing with Dogs 185 

among the Indians. Indeed, she did not see a 
white woman for five years ! Yet she was 
happy, as well as very busy in the work. The 
sick all looked to her for assistance. Once she 
had to fix up a man's scalp which had been cut 
open with an axe ! 

Some amusing things occurred. A woman 
came one day with a pitiable story of her hus- 
band being full of pain in his bones, with fever 
and a bad cough. As the wigwam of this Indian 
family was several miles away the woman had 
come by dog-train. 

As the case seemed to Mrs. Young to be a bad 
attack of La Grippe, which was then raging, she 
gave the woman three sweating powders and told 
her when she reached home to give one to her 
husband in a quart of hot water. She was also 
to keep him warm and to give him plenty of 
soup made out of the meat of a deer which the 
woman said he had recently killed. Then she 
was told that if that treatment did not cure the 
sick man in four or five days, she was to give 
him a second sweating powder. If he was not 
well after that, she was to give him the third 
powder. 

These directions were repeated over and over, 
until the Indian woman declared she understood 
them perfectly. Then away she hurried on her 



1 86 The Battle of the Bears 

dog-sled to carry out these directions. On her 
way home she forgot all about her orders, and 
seemed to have become possessed with the one 
object of quickly curing her husband. She had 
a large dish which would hold between two and 
three quarts of water. This she speedily filled, 
and when it was nearly boiling, she shook into 
it the three sweating powders. Making up a 
great fire she placed the sick man, well wrapped 
up in robes and blankets, as near it as possible 
without burning him. Then she coaxed and 
scolded and pleaded with him until she got him 
to drink the whole of that mixture. 

The results were soon evident. With the 
warm robes, the hot fire outside, and the three 
sweating powders inside of him, the man was 
soon in such a state of perspiration that the now 
terrified wife rushed back on her dog-sled to the 
mission house and almost throwing herself in 
the arms of my wife exclaimed : 

" Oh, come quick ! My husband : he is 
melting ! " 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
The Birch Bark Canoe 



Its perfect adaptation for its work. Canoeing in the summer months 
in the North Land. Our outfit. The varied route of lakes and 
rivers. Picturesque scenery. Portaging. Camping. The beau- 
tiful deer. The glorious vision. The sudden thunder-storm. 
The observant Indian. 



XIII 

THE canoe is emphatically the boat of the 
Indian. How long he was in evolving 
it from a dugout or a raft no one can 
tell. For his travelling on the lakes and rivers 
of this American continent, which, more than 
any other, has been favored with watercourses, 
the birch canoe is perfect. No civilized boat- 
builders can improve on its lines or shape. The 
result is that now thousands of canoes are in use 
at various summer resorts, where the waters are 
suitable for the light and graceful craft. 

Under the guidance of those who are trained 
in its use, a canoe can be safely navigated over 
storm-tossed lakes or sped down wild, rushing 
rivers. So light is it, that when unnavigable 
obstructions, such as falls and cataracts, are met 
with in the river routes, the Indian hunter 
straps his outfit on his back and then, taking 
his canoe on his head, hurries around the dan- 
gerous places, and, when good water is reached, 
reembarks and continues his journey. 

With the exception of a few skiffs, made by 
the Indians for sturgeon-fishing and other heavy 

189 



190 The Battle of the Bears 

work, and the inland boats used by the Hud- 
son's Bay Company for the carrying of their 
goods and furs, there were no boats in that 
country when I first went there, other than the 
birch bark canoes of the Indians. My first at- 
tempt to get into one was very stupid and 
naturally drew from a candid Indian the not 
very complimentary word : 

" Monyas ! " (3^ou greenhorn). 

I had, with civilized boots on, jumped into it 
from the wharf as though it had been a skiff. 
The result was I nearly went through the bottom. 

While at a glance it is easy to distinguish a 
canoe from all other boats, yet each Indian tribe 
has its own peculiar canoe, differing from others 
according to the character of the waters to be 
navigated. Those Indians who lived on the 
shores of the Great Lakes had canoes that were 
unusually wide and consequently more able to 
withstand the storms that occasionally arose. 
Those tribes who lived on the treacherous rivers 
built their canoes much higher in the stern, and 
were thus better able to run the dangerous 
rapids. 

My first canoe trip of any distance was to a 
mission station called Oxford House, and the 
many trips which followed differed from it only 
in minor detail. 



The Birch Bark Canoe 191 

I had with me two experienced canoemen. 
As most of the route of two hundred miles was 
in rivers or small lakes, we had but a medium- 
sized craft. Our outfit was as light as possible, 
as every pound tells on such a trip. One 
blanket apiece was all the bedding carried. As 
Ave expected to dine principally on what we 
shot on the way, we carried a good rifle and a 
couple of shotguns, with plenty of ammunition. 
A tin plate and cup, and a knife and fork 
apiece, with a couple of kettles, our axes and 
hunting knives, made up a luxurious outfit. 
Some tea, salt and sugar, with a few pounds of 
flour and an assortment of Bibles and medicines 
and changes of underclothing, about completed 
the load. 

There is something glorious and exhilarating 
in getting away from civilization for a time, and 
living close to the heart of nature in some of her 
wildest domains. Then, when it is possible to 
throw them off, we get some idea of the des- 
potism of many of the customs of civilization. 

The route along which we travelled in some 
places was wild and rugged. Hell's Gates, 
where the mighty Nelson River is squeezed in 
between high rocks like small mountains, is 
well named. The roar of the raging water, as 
it seemed to fret and worry at being contracted 



192 The Battle of the Bears 

to such a narrow chasm, after having rolled 
along in a majestic river, with lovely, lake-like 
expansions, was not far behind even Niagara in 
its noise and grandeur. Running these 
northern river rapids is a wild and exciting ex- 
perience. 

High up on the beetling, overhanging crags 
at Hell Gates on Nelson River, two golden 
eagles have built their eyrie, safe from the arrow 
and bullet of the most adventurous hunter. In 
great circles they gracefully sailed around, 
sometimes descending so low that for a few 
seconds they were lost from our view in the 
dense spray that rose like the Pillar of Cloud 
from the thundering cataract directly under 
their inaccessible retreat. 

Around the rapids our canoe was carried on 
the head of one of my Indians, while the other 
boatman and I carried the rest of our outfit as 
best we could. 

Some of the lakes through which we paddled, 
or sailed with a blanket fastened to two paddles 
if the wind was favorable, were of wondrous 
beauty. The water was so transparent, the fir- 
clad, rocky isles so picturesque, the air so exhil- 
arating and healthful, as it came to us perfumed 
by the balsam and the spruce, that it seemed a 
luxury to live. 



The Birch Bark Canoe 193 

Some glorious days were spent among these 
scenes of wild grandeur and of idyllic beauty. 
Then there came some that were the very reverse. 
In the long, tortuous stream called the Eat-00- 
mau-mis, a narrow sluggish, creek-like affair, the 
mosquitoes were in such myriads that they 
seemed to darken the air. Such was the char- 
acter of the stream that all of our attention had 
to be devoted to the canoe. The result was, the 
vicious mosquitoes had us in their power, and 
incessantly did they do their work ! Tired and 
hungry we went ashore for something to eat, at 
a spot where stood some dead willows that would 
serve as fuel. We had to be very energetic at 
our work, for so numerous and active were our 
tormentors that my Indians called our cups of 
hot tea mosquito soup. 

As we were gliding along near the shore of a 
beautiful lake one day, on rounding a point we 
saw on the sandy shore ahead of us, a graceful 
doe with a pair of beautiful fawns. The hunt- 
ing instincts of my men were, of course, at once 
aroused, and they seized their guns for the pur- 
pose of killing one or more of those beautiful 
deer. Much as we needed the venison, I would 
not let them fire, as the very presence of those 
graceful creatures seemed so much in harmony 
with the beautiful surroundings of that sweet, 



194 The Battle of the Bears 

peaceful spot. To bring death into such an Eden 
of quiet beauty I could not approve of, and as 
my sensible Indians, when remonstrated with, 
seemed to enter into my feelings, we noiselessly 
sat there and watched and admired, without any 
further attempts to mar the blissful harmony of 
such a pleasant scene. 

We were so near that we could plainly ob- 
serve — what all Indians well know — that a doe, 
when out with the young on the shore of a lake, 
never seems to expect danger from the water 
side. All her anxiety seems to be to guard 
against attack from the forest. So it was in 
this case and thus we watched and admired the 
graceful, playful movements of this mother deer 
and her fawns for a short time, ere we moved 
along to a spot where she obtained a full view 
of us, now quite near to her. With a cry of 
alarm to the little ones, which quickly brought 
them to her side, she and they seemed fairly to 
vanish from our gaze into the dark still forest. 

We slept each night just where our day's pad- 
dling ended. All we needed was some dry 
wood to make a fire, with which to cook the 
ducks, geese, partridges, beavers, muskrats, or 
any other game we had met and killed on the 
way. This, with a kettle of tea, was our princi- 
pal food. At two or three places where we 



The Birch Bark Canoe 195 

camped we set night hooks and so had some fish 
for our next morning's breakfast. 

After our suppers were eaten, which, like all 
our meals, were much enjoyed, for such a life 
gives to all who are privileged to engage in it a 
glorious appetite, we had our evening prayers. 
My men were devout Christians, and so with 
them, it was indeed a great privilege, out there 
amid such quiet scenes of natural beauty where 
there seemed to be so much of God and so little 
of man's defilement, to hold sweet fellowship 
with Him whose untouched handiwork was all 
around. Then after prayers, when the Indians 
were enjoying themselves with their calumets 
(or pipes) at the camp-fire, there was often for 
me the quiet hour of communion with God and 
His works, which was the sweetest and most 
blessed of the twenty-four. 

The hours thus spent amid those northern 
latitudes, for me are gone forever, but their 
memory will never die. All language seems in- 
sufficient to portray some of those sweet evening 
seasons, when, in the long gloaming of the 
northland, the days so wondrously melted away 
into the shadow, yet shadowless, glories of the 
splendid night. One vision of " heaven on 
earth" is often before me. From our camping- 
place on the smooth granite rocks beside a large 



196 The Battle of the Bears 

lake, we watched the sun sinking with undi- 
minished splendor into the western deep. Up 
in the sky, but a few degrees above the descend- 
ing monarch of the day, was a small cloud of 
golden beauty. 

How it happened we cannot tell, but it seems 
as if that cloud transformed itself into a great 
prism, and, catching the rays of the sun, bent 
them down on the beauteous lake of sparkling 
waves and made it a vision of the Apocalypse. 
At first it was as " the sea of glass mingled with 
fire," then it was for a time the jasper sea, beside 
which we sat as though translated to the City of 
God. Then, in great effulgence, the cloud sent 
out its prismatic colors until on the rippling 
lake there blazed and danced in living light 
every hue that Natui'e has ever created or artist 
has ever dreamed. Ten thousand times ten 
thousand waves, reaching out over to the distant 
shores, seemed literally to gleam and glow and 
flash and blaze in crimson and gold, in purple 
and scarlet. There were waves following each 
other in quick succession — waves of diamonds 
and sapphires, of emeralds and amethysts. 

That lake seemed like heaven's great work- 
shop in which were being manufactured glorious 
colors sufficient to paint the " new heavens," 
while at the same time were being crystallized 



The Birch Bark Canoe 197 

from the waters the precious stones necessary for 
the great City of twelve foundations, whose 
maker and builder is God. For some minutes 
this vision of a heaven on earth lasted in ever 
changing beauty as the prism-cloud transformed 
itself. Then it flitted away and we came back 
to find that we were still on earth and not in 
heaven. We were thankful for the vision and 
rejoiced that He who gave us this glimpse of 
heaven, will admit us to the abiding splendor of 
the Eternal City by and by. 

In contrast to these sweet and lovely scenes 
there were some storms and head-winds that 
called into active play not only all the clever- 
ness of my trained Indians, but also all the 
exercise of our patience and endurance. 

I was very much struck one day by the ability 
of my Indians to perceive the coming of a storm 
long ere there was any apparent indication of 
it to me. We were crossing a lake of consider- 
able magnitude, and for some time I had ob- 
served that my men seemed somewhat uneasy 
and more than usually alert. During the morn- 
ing we had heard distant thunder, but, although 
there were some passing clouds in the sky, to 
my eyes there were no indications of an impend- 
ing storm. Suddenly the older Indian who was 
the guide, shouted : 



198 The Battle of the Bears 

" For the shore as quickly as possible ! " 

To me there was no special reason for the 
great hurry, but of course we obeyed and paddled 
as hard as we could. 

The shore was perhaps a mile distant, and we 
reached it without trouble. Still to me there was 
no sign of an immediate storm, and I was some- 
what amused at the zeal and speed with which 
my men first securely fastened down their canoe 
between two large fallen trees, then, with their 
two blankets and poles, made a kind of lean-to 
tent in a depression in the ground among some 
dense spruce trees. The guns they carefully 
wrapped in their water-proof cases and laid away 
at some distance, while the axe, to my amuse- 
ment, they buried in the ground. 

The wisdom of their hurried movements was 
soon seen. Hardly had all their preparations 
been completed when a terrible storm of wind 
and rain was upon us. So rapid and continuous 
were the lightning flashes and thunder claps 
that it was evident we were in the very centre 
of a cyclonic storm. With my blanket well 
wrapped around me and cuddled down between 
the two Indians, who had all they could do to keep 
their blankets, arranged as a slight protection 
for us against the gale, from being torn to pieces 
or blown away, there we sat amid the sudden 



The Birch Bark Canoe 199 

darkness of the storm which came upon us, 
broken only by the vivid flashings of lightning, 
accompanied by deafening thunder peals. Great 
trees fell in numbers around us, one of them 
crashing down directly across the two large logs 
between which our canoe had been placed. For- 
tunately they were large and strong enough to 
save our frail boat from being destroyed, but it 
required a good deal of chopping on the part of 
my Indians before the canoe could be released. 
This and other work occupied the men for some 
hours, and so we were not able to resume our 
journey until the next day. 

Broken weather followed this great storm and 
we were drenched by the rain. Our first work 
each morning was to wring the water out of our 
blankets and also out of the clothes in which we 
had slept. 

The Sabbath that we expected to have spent 
with the Indians — as well as the previous Satur- 
day — in worship, we passed on a little rocky 
island in Oxford Lake, some miles from the mis- 
sion. A wind storm raged, of such fury that our 
canoe could not possibly Aveather the gale, and 
so there we crouched in the most sheltered spot 
and let it sweep harmlessly over us. It was a 
trial of patience, to see the days go by, and to 
know that yonder in plain sight, on the main- 



200 The Battle of the Bears 

land, were the Indians gathered to greet and 
hear the missionary who had come two hundred 
miles to preach to them, but who was now de- 
tained there by that fierce gale. 

No use in murmuring ! " Fret not about that 
which you cannot prevent," was the maxim of 
an ancient philosopher. Wiser still were the 
words of the great Teacher Himself ; so we three, 
there amid the storm, in worship and waiting 
spent that day, and then on the afternoon of the 
next we ended the journey and were cordially 
welcomed. Some happy busy days were spent 
in preaching and teaching, and then along the 
same route the journey home was made. 

Thus each summer was spent. With our 
canoe we visited Nelson River Indians on the 
Burntwood River, and also those at Cross Lake, 
Poplar River, Beren's River, Sandy Bay, Grand 
Rapids, Oxford Lake, Little Saskatchewan, and 
several other places. At some of these points 
flourishing missions are now established. To 
some of these remote places devoted missionaries 
had gone years before my time, while at others 
of them it was my joy to be the first to preach 
the gospel of the Son of God. 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 

Eeason for taking it. Faithful Timothy's illness. Lack of facilities 
for travelling. Home duties calling. The old canoe. The old 
women's cleverness in repairing it. Three old veteran canoemen. 
The journey begun. Varied adventures. A night of anxiety — 
the storm. The plucky old men. Our desperate struggle. 



XIV 

I HAD some thrilling experiences and narrow 
escapes from death during many long trips 
on stormy, treacherous Lake Winnipeg. It 
was on this great lake that, in later years, Rev. 
James McLaughlin, one of our devoted mission- 
aries lost his life. With an Indian steersman 
and six Indian children whom he was bringing 
out to school, he was caught in a sudden storm. 
Just how they perished no one ever knew, as 
there was no survivor to tell the tale. 

I have crossed that great lake twenty-two 
times, and so know something of it in its various 
moods, in its storms and calms. I have trav- 
elled through its waters in the summer time in 
canoe, or open boat, and in winter I have ridden 
or run with my dog-trains on its icy surface, 
when its waves were all imprisoned by the Frost 
King. 

I have camped scores of times on its pictur- 
esque, rocky shores and have visited all the In- 
dian bands, that in my day fished in its waters 
in the summer time, and in the winters hunted 
in the forests that skirted its shores. From my 
home at Norway House I visited and held re- 

203 



204 The Battle of the Bears 

ligious services among the Indians at Poplar 
River, Beren's River, Pigeon River, on the east 
side of Lake Winnipeg ; and at Sandy Bar, 
Grindstone Point, and Little Saskatchewan on 
the western side. I tried so far as possible, to 
visit all these places twice a year, once in my 
canoe in summer, and once each winter with my 
dogs. 

So intensely interested were the Indians in 
" The Old Old Story," I had to tell them, that in 
answer to their importunate pleadings I was con- 
strained to send my interpreter, a devout and 
godly man and an eloquent preacher, to live at 
Beren's River. His name was Timothy Bear, 
and he was a man of a sweet and gentle spirit, 
one who showed in his life the marvellous trans- 
forming powers of the gospel. 

At Beren's River, apart from the few houses 
of the Hudson's Ba}^ Company, there was not a 
building in the place. The wigwams of the In- 
dians were of an inferior kind, and so in preparing 
an outfit for Timothy I let him have my large 
lodge, a splendid wigwam, made of twenty-six 
buffalo skins. 

In this fine wigwam we fitted out him and 
his family with everything necessary for their 
modest wants, and in good heart he began and 
prosecuted his work with satisfactory results. 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 205 

One day towards the end of summer I received 
word that a cyclone had struck the village, and 
that Timothy's wigwam, as well as many others, 
had been torn from its fastenings and hurled 
away, leaving him and his family for some hours 
exposed to a storm of sleet and rain. The result 
was that Timothy had caught a severe cold and 
was bleeding badly from his lungs. In his 
troubles he and his wife, Betsy, had sent word 
for me to come to his assistance. My heart was 
full of sorrow for my afflicted helper, and as 
there was a boat, the last of the season, just 
ready to return to the Red River Settlement, I 
made a bargain with the owners to take me, 
with supplies, as far as Beren's River, where 
Timothy had camped. 

I found my comrade very sick indeed, but 
cared for as well as possible by the kindly sym- 
pathetic Saulteaux Indians, for whose good he 
had been toiling. We all went to work and in 
a few days made for him and his family, a cozy 
little log shack, in which they would really be 
more comfortable during the long winter, now 
near at hand, than they would have been in the 
wigwam. 

With the supplies and medicines I had 
brought with me, the family were well cared 
for, and as Timothy began rapidly to mend, I 



2o6 The Battle of the Bears 

began to feel a bit concerned about my return to 
my home. 

It was now far on in November, and it was 
well known, that, some years Lake Winnipeg's 
waves were under the ice at that date. I had 
no time to lose, if I expected to reach my far 
away home by open water. All the sail boats 
for that season were safely hauled up and made 
secure. The Indian men were all away at their 
fishing grounds with their skiffs and canoes, 
catching their winter's supply of fish. My in- 
quiries brought out the fact that there was not 
about the place a canoe that would be considered 
safe even for river travelling, let alone daring 
to venture out on Winnipeg's great waves in 
stormy November. 

The officer in charge of the Hudson's Bay 
Company's post stated his inability to aid me, 
as all of his canoes were away at the fisheries. 

After awhile, seeing my anxiety to get home, 
for I really did not wish to have to remain there 
until the ice was strong enough to bear me and 
then have to walk two hundred miles on it, he 
said : " Well, Mr. Young, there is a large, old 
canoe that has been condemned for three years. 
It is hanging on some beams in the fish house. 
You might go and see if anything can be done 
with it. It is no good here : so you can have 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 207 

it, if you care to take it. But," he added, " I 
would not like even to have to cross a river in 
it." 

I hurried out, and getting some old Indian 
men who had not gone to the fisheries, to help 
me, we carefully lifted down the old canoe. It 
was a dangerous looking affair in which to try 
to make such a journey. We had some long 
discussions over it. The old men smoked and 
talked and even some old women, famous canoe- 
makers, had their say. Examination revealed 
the fact that the ribs and stays were sound. 
The only trouble was in the bark. It was rot- 
ten in some places and broken in others — and 
what is a birch bark canoe without good bark? 

Thus they talked and smoked, and decided 
that with plenty of new bark and much gum 
that old canoe could be patched and gummed 
up so that three old men, wise and careful, 
could paddle the missionary home, so that he 
who had come to comfort Timothy and be a 
blessing to them all, should yet see his family 
before Christmas. 

When this decision was reached, with much 
burning of tobacco and drinking of my tea, they 
set to work. That is, the women did, for when 
old women were around, whoever saw an In- 
dian man do anything to a canoe, except to give 



2o8 The Battle of the Bears 

orders. To the four women, who, I saw, were 
experienced canoe menders, as well as builders, 
I promised good pay for a good job. They were 
not long in securing an abundant supply of 
birch bark and gum. This gum or pitch, as it 
is sometimes called, is made by boiling down 
the gum known as Canada balsam, which is 
obtained from the trees by the women. 
Before they began, they had, out of my 
supplies, a good meal, which included a 
large kettle of very strong tea. Then they set 
to work, and the way they sewed, and patched 
and gummed the old canoe, delighted me. 
With straps, they swung the canoe up about four 
feet from the ground and filled it with water. 
Their keen eyes detected every spot through 
which the water oozed. These weak places they 
marked with a piece of coal, and so when the 
water was let out and the canoe overturned, 
they knew where to daub on more gum and 
skilfully smooth it over, thus making all water 
tight. 

This process of testing was twice repeated, 
and then the old craft, which now, with its ex- 
tra patching and daubing with pitch, was about 
as heavy as an ordinary skiff, was pronounced 
as well mended as it could be. But emphatic 
were the warnings to keep out of the choppy 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 209 

waves, as the bark was so brittle it would stand 
no rough usage. 

My three old men were plucky veterans, with 
much experience and good appetites, especially 
for tobacco and tea. I had selected them as 
soon as the canoe had been put into the hands 
of the old women for repairs, and so for sevei-al 
days I had the chance of fattening them on 
good whitefish and pemmican. It was aston- 
ishing, as well as amusing, to watch the change 
for the better that took place in them, as with 
great satisfaction they stowed away four or five 
big meals a day, for about a week. Everything 
now being ready we said '' Good-bye ! " to dear 
Timothy and the rest, and began our adventur- 
ous journey of two hundred miles. 

Lake Winnipeg's shores are indented with 
great bays. The headlands jutting out on each 
side of these bays are sometimes many miles dis- 
tant from each other. In ordinary canoe travel- 
ling, the plan is to strike direct across these deep 
bays from headland to headland. But alas, we 
dared not venture out so far from land, and so 
our pathway in the waters was like a succession 
of horseshoes, as we skirted the shores in these 
various bays. But we were all in good heart, 
even if our progress was slow. The old Indians 
were alert, and so active, that about every hour 



2IO The Battle of the Bears 

of the daylight we were in the canoe. These 
hours, however, were not many, in such a high 
latitude, in November. 

We made but one brief stop in the middle of 
each day for a hurried dinner, but the Indians 
made up for it, by the hearty morning and 
evening meals at which they arranged to have 
abundance of time. Every morning they were 
up long before daylight. The smouldering 
camp-fire of the night before Avas quickly re- 
kindled, and the morning meal prepared and 
much enjoyed. After prayers, the canoe, which 
had been carefully examined, was loaded, and 
then as the stars were fading out in the morn- 
ing dawn, the journey was resumed. The most 
pleasant hours were those spent at the evening 
camp-fire when the day's work was done. The 
nights were getting cold and so it was delightful 
to gather round the bright fire of burning logs. 
There the three bronzed old Indians ate and 
smoked to their hearts' content. 

The weather, for the time of the 3^ear, was 
fair, and as day after day we carefully paddled 
on with long steady strokes, we were congratu- 
lating ourselves on our progress. But the 
worst was before us. 

At Montreal Point a long traverse has to be 
crossed to reach Spider Island, the last stopping 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 21 1 

place before we enter the mouth of the Nelson 
River, at the northern end of the great lake. 
This traverse is over twenty miles across, and is 
all open sea, and the lake is here about eighty 
miles wide. As we gathered round our camp- 
fire the evening before the day we were to make 
the crossing, it was very evident to me that my 
men were much concerned and even anxious 
about the dangers before us. Fitful gusts of 
wind blew over us and flurries of snow were 
seen for the first time on the trip. We had 
made our evening camp-fire in a sheltered spot 
where we were protected from the winds, for we 
had no tent and the night was cold. None of 
us slept much, for we were all anxious as to the 
morrow. Several times the men left the camp- 
fire and went out to observe the winds and 
waves. But they had nothing encouraging to 
report. 

The morning broke cold and cheerless, and 
the outlook over the wild waves was so dis- 
heartening, that it was decided to delay starting 
for at least a couple of hours. We hoped that 
with the sunlight on the waters, the big, wild 
waves would not look so remorseless and cruel. 
The strongest paddler was in the stern of the 
canoe, the next strongest in the front, and old 
Jakoos and I were in the middle. The man- 



212 The Battle of the Bears 

agement of the boat was left to the men at the 
stem and stern, while old Jakoos and I were 
just to paddle steadily and strongly, without any 
jerky movements. We got off at length and 
made fairly good progress for some miles. Then 
we noticed that the waves were getting very 
much higher and all the skill and care of our 
men were called into action. It was interesting 
to watch the clever way in which the Indians 
so managed the canoe that when a great roaring 
wave came towering on, as though eager to en- 
gulf us, they so skilfully used their paddles, 
that our canoe was partially turned sideways, 
and safely, like a duck, we floated over the 
foaming crest and slid down on the other side. 

But very little was said, since every moment, 
without a break, the most consummate skill and 
nerve were required to meet and surmount the 
great waves that like Atlantic rollers were now 
following one another in quick succession. 

I had such confidence in my men that I had 
not the slightest anxiety so far as they were con- 
cerned, but, as we went on mile after mile, 
climbing up those great, angry waves and then 
shooting down into the ab3'sses between them, 
I could not but watch our old canoe and wonder 
how long she would be able to stand the strain. 

Spider Islands, our next stopping place, were 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 213 

now clearly visible and so, with quiet words of 
cheer to each other, we kept to our work, with 
unrelaxed vigilance, for the waves were, if pos- 
sible, higher than ever. Sometimes they would 
seem so steep and tower up so threateningly be- 
fore us, that as they rushed at us, I wondered 
why we were not swallowed up by them, but 
somehow or other, the buoyant canoe was kept 
just out of reach of what seemed the jaws of 
death, and then as we swung over the crest and 
the great wave rushed by, it seemed to laugh at 
the fright it had given us, as it rolled away in 
our rear to join its fellows. But in a moment 
of fancied security our trouble came. A wave, 
apparently no higher than many we had already 
safely passed, was before us. Cleverly, as usual, 
our steersman and bowsman surmounted it, but 
in going down the other side, our canoe instead 
of floating down sideways or partially so, shot 
straight down into the trough of the sea, and 
ere it began the ascent of the next wave, it 
slapped with such force on the waters, that it 
split open, across the bottom, from side to side, 
just under where I was sitting ! 

We were indeed in a sad plight ! With an 
ominous swish, the water was spurting up 
through the crack, which opened and closed 
with every movement of the canoe. 



214 The Battle of the Bears 

Indians are quick to act in emergencies. A 
large blanket was at once folded and placed 
over the crack, where I held it down as well as 
I could. The camp kettle, which would hold 
perhaps a couple of gallons, was given to Jakoos 
with which to bail out the water as rapidly as 
possible. This he did thoroughl}^ and well, only 
once stopping to light his little stone pipe. The 
other three of us used our paddles, knowing 
that our lives depended upon the making of the 
mile or so which still separated us from the 
islands. Slowly the water gained upon us, in 
spite of our efforts. But still the old man bailed 
and cautiously, but strongly, the rest of us pad- 
dled. My feet were soon under the water and 
some small articles were afloat. 

Our danger was very great. The canoe was 
getting heavy with the water in it, which now 
rushed from stem to stern and then back again, 
as we rose and fell upon the waves. Fortu- 
nately the waves diminished in size, as we were 
getting in the lee of the island. But the water 
still gained on us. All we could do was des- 
perately to paddle on. 

" Bail away ! Jakoos." " Grand old man ! " I 
said encouragingly. 

" Paddle your best, men. See, we are within 
a few hundred feet of the shore." 



My Most Exciting Canoe Trip 215 

"What is that?" I asked anxiousl3\ Our 
canoe had sunk down nearly to the water's edge, 
and had come to a dead stop. 

"Ho! Ho!" they shouted. "We have 
grounded on the sand, and are safe." 

Like an otter every man bounded out of the 
canoe into the shallow waters. With four hands 
on each side we steadied our craft and did not 
stop until we had her high and dry upon the 
sandy beach of the lonely, desolate Spider 
Islands. We looked into each others' faces. 
A mist is in our eyes but gratitude filled our 
hearts. 

" Sing, men," and they sang : — 

Mah me che mik way yoo tah week, 
Mena Jesus wa koo see sik, 
Me ua ka nah tee sit ah jak, 
Mah mah we yas, mah me che mik. 
'* Praise God from whom all blessiugs flow." 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
Some Indian Characteristics 



Variety of languages and customs. Picturesqueness of Native dress. 
Methods of preparing skins for use. Comfortable and enduring 
garments. Beautiful wigwams like the buffalo, things of the past. 
The Stone age — crude stone axes. Fire always necessary in their 
use. 



XV 



1 



'^HE vastness of the country perhaps had 
much to do in developing those charac- 
teristics which distinguish the red men 
of America from the inhabitants of other lands. 
The magnificent forests, lakes and rivers, with 
the boundless prairies and infinite diversity of 
hill and plain undoubtedly exerted powerful in- 
fluences upon them. 

Their necessities made them nomads and 
hunters. Their having no written language 
and their rapid drifting apart in clans and 
tribes to remote localities, as their inclinations 
or necessities demanded, soon resulted in their 
disintegration. Having no central place for fre- 
quent reunions and no standard of comparison 
the result on the language was, as has been the 
case among all peoples, the ever changing of the 
forms and sounds of words and the introduction 
of new ones. New dialects were, in time, thus 
created and in a few generations it became true 
that people who were originally of the same 
great family, were unable to converse with each 
other. 

219 



220 The Battle of the Bears 

With these wide separations and estrange- 
ments, added to ambitions and jealousies over 
hunting grounds, it is hardly to be won- 
dered at that wars broke out among the people, 
and were so continuous that hunting and war 
came to be considered the only two occupations 
worthy of manhood. 

What little agriculture was carried on among 
them, as well as all of the drudgery of every day 
life, was left to the women and girls. The war 
spirit, as well as the ambition to excel as hunters, 
led to constant exercise with weapons, which, 
after all, seem never to have risen to anything 
more effective than bows and arrows, war clubs 
and spears. These, however, as well as the 
canoes, made from the bark of the birch, or hol- 
lowed out of the trunks of trees displayed much 
artistic skill as did also their pipes and house- 
hold implements. 

The Indian garments were more or less elabo- 
rate and abundant according to the latitude in 
which the people lived and the taste or vanity 
of the different tribes. 

To the Indian on the plains or prairies, where 
the buffalo roamed in countless herds, that 
animal not only furnished food, but it also, from 
its skin, furnished him with his wigwam and 
clothing. The skins of the otter and beaver as 



Some Indian Characteristics 221 

well as those of other fur bearing animals were 
much used by the Indians of the northern states 
and Canada, before the beginning of the fur 
trade by the enterprising white man. 

The Indian women have ever been noted for 
their cleverness in dressing the furs and skins of 
the wild animals and forming them into pictur- 
esque garments for their chiefs and great men. 

The skins of the buffalo, deer, moose, antelope, 
and elk provided the ordinary clothing in the 
regions where these animals were most abundant. 
These skins, dressed and smoked in Indian style, 
were soft and pliant and made garments that 
were comfortable and enduring. 

The smoking of the skins was quite an art, 
and was the only method used by the Indians 
for their preservation, as they knew nothing of 
the astringent qualities of the bark of the oak or 
hemlock. To get the best results in the smoking 
of the skins, the women preferred the dry rotten 
inner wood of a dead birch tree, as they said its 
smoke was more acrid and pungent than that of 
any other wood. A hole was dug in the ground 
and in it the decayed wood was placed and 
ignited. It gave out no flame, but a very dense 
smoke. Over this the skins, which were gen- 
erally sewed together like a bag, were stretched. 
The greatest care was now necessary to smoke 



222 The Battle of the Bears 

the whole to an even color, similar to that of a 
dyed piece of cloth. To do this required much 
experience and skill. 

So firm and enduring were found to be the 
leather garments of the Indians, that when the 
white men made their appearance as hunters or 
woodmen they were not slow in adopting them. 
They found them to be not only strong and 
warm, but light and more suited for the wear 
and tear of wild, rough life than any of the 
garments of civilization. 

We have become accustomed to seeing thus 
attired our confreres of the paleface, from the 
early coureurs des-bois, down to the western cow- 
boys. The leggings and moccasins are still in 
evidence among us. Hunters find that there is 
nothing in civilized apparel that can take their 
place for utility and comfort. They have held 
their ground against all innovations and are now 
disappearing for the simple fact alone that the 
material for their manufacture is becoming so 
difficult to obtain. The Indian shoes, called 
moccasins, with some variation in spelling, 
among different tribes, are much superior for 
the Indians to any of the boots or shoes of civ- 
ilization. The best are made of moose skin 
dressed and smoked in the peculiar Indian way. 
The shape differs in different tribes. Some are 



Some Indian Characteristics 223 

handsomely ornamented, and when elaborately 
made, as for some great ceremonial or marriage 
occasion, and carefully prepared of unsmoked 
leather, are as white as the whitest of kid leather. 
They are more or less artistically decorated with 
colored horsehair, porcupine quill work, and in 
later years, with beads and silk work. 

They were exceedingly comfortable, cool and 
light in summer and in winter, as the writer 
well knows by the experience of their use for 
many years, so warm that cold feet were un- 
known, even when one travelled all day and the 
temperature ranged from forty to sixty below zero. 
Among the early Indians such things as cramped 
feet or corns, were absolutely unheard of. 

The fact that the garments were so enduring, 
was owing not only to the way in which the 
skins had been prepared, but also to the fact 
that all of the sewing was done with sinew. 
The best of the sinew, which was obtained from 
the back of the deer, was, when well prepared 
by the Indian women, so strong that an Indian 
leather garment never ripped nor ravelled. 
Buttons sewed on by it might wear out, but the 
sinew never failed. 

" Give an Indian a knife and a string, and he 
will make a living." This was a common say- 
ing among the early whites, who were close ob- 



224 The Battle of the Bears 

servers of the ingenuity and fertility of resources 
of these children of the forest. While the knife 
was invaluable to the red man, the string was 
almost equally important. With string or 
twine made out of sinew, as fine as thread and 
very much stronger, he made snares with which 
he captured rabbits, partridges, ptarmigan and 
other small game. He made larger strings, by 
carefully cutting up various skins. Some of 
these were like the catgut of civilization and 
were used for many purposes. The lariats and 
lassoes were made of leather, carefully cut and 
then braided and oiled. 

In some of the temperate and southern regions 
the forest furnished several kinds of bark out of 
which the Indians were able to make twine and 
ropes and thread for weaving. In sewing, the 
methods were most primitive. As they had no 
needles, a fine pointed bone awl was used to 
puncture the holes through which the sinew was 
drawn. Thus the process, if abiding, was neces- 
sarily very slow. 

The garments of the great war chiefs were 
often not only thus elaborately made and deco- 
rated in the usual manner by the clever, indus- 
trious Indian women, but to some of them were 
also added the long black scalp locks of human 
hair, torn from the heads of enemies. 



Some Indian Characteristics 225 

As regards the habitations, the very fact of 
the Indians' living by the chase kept them ever 
on the move. The result was that their dwelling 
places were of the most flimsy character and, as 
in the case of their skin wigwams, especially on 
the great prairies, where building materials could 
not be obtained, such as could easily be moved 
about. The result is the absence of anything 
like permanent ruins of homes, such as are found 
in other parts of the world among less roving 
people. 

Then, as there was no order of nobility or 
caste among them, the wigwam of the mightiest 
chief was no better than the lodge of the modest 
member of the tribe. 

The religious beliefs of the people were in 
two great Spirits, one ever working for their good 
and the other to their hurt. These two antago- 
nistic powers were almost universally called 
" Good Medicine and Bad Medieine." They were 
spiritual influences pervading everything, and 
therefore not to be localized. The result was the 
Indians had no church, no altar, no temples. 
The medicine men or conjurors were those of the 
tribe who were supposed to be in communication 
with the spirits, and they asked for no better 
buildings in which to carry on their incantations 
than the ordinary wigwam or lodge of the tribes. 



226 The Battle of the Bears 

The result is that north of Mexico there are prac- 
tically no ruins of temples or other buildings of 
any great architectural pretensions. The abodes 
of the cliff dwellers are interesting but seem to 
have been originally formed only as places of 
safety from enemies. 

The stone age of the Indians has left for us 
some implements which throw light upon their 
methods of work. 

The stone chisels used by the women in dress- 
ing skins were made blunt so that they would 
not cut the leather, although they were used 
with a good deal of force to separate the flesh and 
fat from the green hides which were tightly 
stretched on a frame. 

Some of the domestic vessels were carved out 
of wood ; the butternut and the basswood trees 
being preferred for this, as they were easily 
worked and not liable to split. All the cooking 
vessels were made of clay, burned hard and firm. 
The larger ones were sufficiently strong to be 
used in the boiling of the game and fish. 

One of the most common and abundant is 
what is called the Indian axe. Yet if we under- 
stand by that word an instrument for felling 
trees and then cutting them up either for build- 
ing uses, or for the fires, we find ourselves very 
far from the truth. No Indian stone axe could 



Some Indian Characteristics 227 

make any impression on the great native trees of 
American forests. The agent used for bringing 
down the forest trees, and then in getting them 
into the lengtlis required, was fire. When logs 
were needed to be formed into canoes, or more 
properly dugouts, the proper tree was selected 
and at its base a fire was started. When it had 
so progressed that living coals were formed in the 
trunk, these were carefully picked out, by the 
so called Indian axe. This axe was made from 
hard stone, by the use of harder ones to reduce 
it to the shape required. It was then fitted with 
a handle, which consisted of a green withe firmly 
wound round the groove made outside of the 
implement. By this constant picking at the 
trunk of the tree as the live coals were formed 
by the continuation of the fire, some progress 
was slowly made, and, with good success, in a 
few days a large tree would be cut off at the de- 
sired length for the formation of a dugout. 

Time was not considered of much value in 
those days. 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
Life in the Wigwams 

Universal commuuism. Perfect equality. Varied incidents. The 
famous story-teller. Leaves from au old journal. The beginning 
of a mission under difficulties. The traditions of the origin of 
species. 



XVI 

THE wigwams of the Indians, whether 
on the prairies, made of from twenty 
to forty dressed buffalo skins, or, in the 
far north, skilfully built of layers of birch bark 
over a skeleton work of poles, were, when sweet 
and clean, not unpleasant dwelling places in the 
warm summer months. There was a pleasur- 
able excitement in living in them, especially 
when camped on the shores of a great lake or 
near a rushing river, where the noise of many 
waters, acted as a lullaby to sleep. Here, 
breathing the ozone of the forest trees, a glo- 
rious tonic, one felt much nearer to the heart of 
Nature than when cooped up in houses of brick 
or stone, amid the dust and grime and excite- 
ment of the great city. 

But while the life in a sweet, new wigwam 
with congenial surroundings, may be delightful 
in summer time, there are seasons of the year 
in the high latitudes when all the poetry and 
romance and pleasure, are conspicuous by their 
absence. When the sleety rains come, quickly 
followed by the heavy snow-storms, and the 
temperature rapidly runs down until the cold 

231 



232 The Battle of the Bears 

becomes intense and what sunshine there is, 
while beautiful to behold, is a delusion and a 
snare as regards warmth or comfort, then, if 
there is any romance or enjoyment in huddling 
with a lot of stolid Indians who sit around you 
in silence, their heads covered with shawl or 
blanket, while the little fire is not much better 
than a mosquito smudge with its acrid smoke 
going into your eyes rather than up and out at 
the orifice at the top of the wigwam, well, I 
fail to see it. 

With the disappearance of the buffalo the 
beautiful wigwams of the past are gone and 
poor indeed are those that remain. 

That human beings can live in such frail 
abodes in such cold regions is indeed surprising. 
But they do, and many of them seem to thrive 
amazingly. In those wigwams are to be found 
the fattest and most good natured of babies, and 
the healthiest of boys and girls. To you, as a 
stranger and a paleface, they may be shy and 
timid at first, but after a time they are found to 
be full of fun and mischief, and as ready for 
romp and frolic as any white bo3^s or girls. 
There in stately dignity, sit the old men with 
the long pipe ever in their mouths or hands. 
The women seem alwaj^s busy. Some mocca- 
sin-making, leather-sewing, or basket-making 



Life in the Wigwams 233 

seem always to keep them busy when not other- 
wise engaged. 

The hunter w^ould come in, it may be, after 
days of absence in the woods, and without 
greetings to any one would take his place be- 
side his wife, whose first recognition of him was 
generally to place the fat good-natured papoose 
(baby) in his arms if there was one on hand. 
Then, especially if it were a boy, the stern, im- 
passive face relaxed and with some endearing 
words the father kissed and played with the 
child, while his wife busied herself with getting 
him something to eat. 

After he had eaten and while he smoked, he 
spoke of his success or failure in the hunt. His 
words, whether they told of great success or 
complete failure, met with the same quiet re- 
sponse. There were no noisy congratulations 
on success, neither were there any bitter con- 
demnations if he had failed. It was taken for 
granted that he had done his best, and if suc- 
cessful that was his reward ; if not so, why say 
anything to humiliate him the more, as he felt 
and was mortified by his failure. 

I have known two hunters to return to the 
wigwam about the same time. One had been 
successful, the other had failed. Yet it was 
difficult for an outsider to tell from anything 



2 34 The Battle of the Bears 

that was then said in the tent which had been 
the successful one. 

Everything is held in common. So long as 
game has been secured and the big pots can be 
kept boiling, it seems to matter but little who 
brought back the supply. 

What a mixed-up crowd we often were in 
some of those wigwams ! Men, women, and 
children, and dogs, and at times it seemed as 
though all were smoking excej)t the missionary 
and the dogs ! 

When wild, bitter storms raged without, we 
huddled around the fire with our feet tucked 
under us. The Indians generally listened at- 
tentively and smoked incessantly, while I talked 
to them out of the great Book, for sometimes my 
coming to that wigwam was but once a year. 
They were anxious for the exciting stories and 
accounts of the great things that are going on 
in the white man's country. Sometimes their 
credulity was taxed to the uttermost when I de- 
scribed some things the white man could do. 
At times, when venison or fish was plentiful 
and they had all enjoyed a hearty meal, washed 
down by large quantities of my tea, I would get 
some old tribal story teller to give us from his 
retentive memory, some of the legends and tra- 
ditions of the past. The instant his consent was 



Life in the Wigwams 235 

secured, for it was not always easy to get him to 
talk, there was the most perfect attention, for 
all dearly love to hear these stories of the past, 
especially as recited to them by one who they 
know can tell them well. The fire was replen- 
ished, the pipes refilled, the papooses hushed 
down upon their mother's breasts, or laid away 
in their moss bags, the dogs were pushed back 
or banished, and then the talker talked. 

If it was difficult to get him started, it was 
often harder to stop him. He would generally 
begin with stories of the times when all the an- 
imals and human beings were on friendly happy 
terms, with no enmity among them and all pos- 
sessed one common language. 

The Stories of Creation are very many. One 
of the origin of men of different colors so inter- 
ested me, that I repeat it at the end of this 
chapter. The story teller also gave the Story of 
the Flood, of Keche Wapus, of Nanaboozoo, and 
Hiawatha, of great monsters that once lived on 
the land, and of others in the sea, of great Can- 
nibals and Windagoos, still to be feared. When 
he talked of these Cannibals and Windegoos, 
the boys and girls hid under the blankets and 
the women put fresh wood on the fire to brighten 
up the blaze, as it is believed that these creatures 
like wolves, love the darkness and keep away 



236 The Battle of the Bears 

from the fires. When it was really time to stop, 
the patriarch of the wigwam knocked the ashes 
out of his pipe and said : " How ! How ! " and 
so the talker ceased, and soon we all wrapped 
our blankets around us and stretched ourselves 
out with our feet towards the fire, lying, a score 
or so of us, men, women and children, like the 
spokes of a wheel, the fire in the centre being as 
the hub. 

Sometimes, in honor of the missionary, many 
relatives of the family in the wigwam that en- 
tertained me, came to see and to hear me, and 
remained all night. Then the question was, 
how we were all to be stowed away. Frequently 
the wigwam was so small that we of the first 
circle dared not stretch out our feet for fear of 
putting them into the fire. This did not add to 
our comfort, neither was it conducive to sleep, 
especially as to prevent being blistered or burned 
we had to lie in a position very much like a half 
opened jack-knife. 

Thus it is, just as the happiness and comforts 
of home life vary in so called civilized commu- 
nities, so do they differ in the wigwams of the 
red Indians. 

I have spent days in some wigwams of Chris- 
tian Indians where it was a pleasure to abide. 
The company was not too numerous, the dogs 



Life in the Wigwams 237 

were banished to the outside, the earth floor was 
evenly covered with fragrant balsam boughs, 
the fire was brilliant and almost smokeless be- 
cause the wood was dry and good. The blankets 
and robes were clean and sweet, and best of all, 
everybody seemed happy and all did their share 
to contribute to the enjoyment of others. 

The contrast to this idyllic vision is the re- 
membrance of some of the abodes of wild, pagan 
Indians, where neither Godliness nor cleanliness 
were known. 

As I turn over an old journal of my wander- 
ings in the days of long ago I come to the fol- 
lowing : — 

" At Cross Lake we find about a dozen wig- 
wams, fairly well filled with people of all ages. 
They are as yet all pagans and some of them 
quite averse even to have me tell the story of 
God's love, as revealed in Christ Jesus. Some 
of them are fantastically dressed, while others 
are almost nude. They received us with civil- 
ity, but evidently with much curiosity. They 
were filled with amazement at the appearance of 
m}^ boots. We had injured our canoe in some 
rapids, and so I engaged a couple of old women, 
canoe-makers, to repair it. I was much amused 
as well as interested to notice the cleverness with 
which one of these old women made tight and 



238 The Battle of the Bears 

strong, a large rent that had been torn in the 
bottom of our canoe. She pulled a strip of cloth 
from one of her under garments, and then satu- 
rating it in the boiling pitch, she placed it over 
the crack in the canoe kneading it down with 
her thumb which she kept wet, until she soon 
had the break firmly and neatly repaired. 

" With my Christian Indian canoemen I in- 
vited all who would attend, to come and meet 
me in the largest of the wigwams, which the 
owner had allowed me to use that we might 
have a talk on the Christian religion. About 
forty crowded in, with the household. Many 
came out of idle curiosity, while a few undoubt- 
edly were anxious to hear the Truth. It was in- 
deed a motley crowd and some things going on 
were trying to the eyes and ears and nerves of the 
speaker. Sitting just between me and the fire 
was a middle-aged woman, whose son brought 
into the wigwam to her a fine jack fish, weighing 
perhaps eight or ten pounds. I was in the midst 
of my address, but little heeded the woman. She 
was hungry and here before her was food. So 
quickly seizing a sharp knife, with a strong slash 
she cut open the fish and inserting her hand into 
the orifice thus made, she pulled out the largest 
of the entrails and rolling them on the end of a 
stick, roasted them in the fire, and, while appar- 



Life in the Wigwams 239 

ently listening to what I had to say, at the same 
time she devoured her dainty tidbits with great 
relish. All over the wigwam the men and 
women were smoking incessantly. Some used 
tobacco, others kinnikenick and others the bark 
of the red willow. Dogs came sneaking in, and 
whenever possible stuck their heads into the pots 
and pans, for the sake of the lickings that might 
remain. With objurgations, emphatic and loud, 
from some women, the magestimuk (bad dogs) 
were reduced to order, which, however, lasted but 
an exceedingly brief time. 

" Amidst such surroundings and with such 
crude material was that now flourishing mission 
at Cross Lake first begun." 

" The above is a fair sample from my journals, 
of the early trips in the years now long past. 
Better days and happier times have come to these 
people. This legend, here added, is a good illus- 
tration of the many often told with much dra- 
matic power by the Indian story teller. It was 
an interesting sight to see the rapt attention with 
which the Indians, young and old, listened to 
these oft told stories. 

" Long ago," said the Indian story teller, " the 
Great Spirit made this earth and it was so fine 
that he decided to create men to live upon it. 
So he went off" to where there was a great clay 



240 The Battle of the Bears 

pit, and taking from it a large piece of the clay, 
he moulded it out into the form of a man. Then 
he put this clay man into an oven to bake. When 
he thought it was well done, he took it out, but to 
his disgust he found that it was burned black. 
This man, the Great Spirit threw to a hot country, 
where he became the father of the black people. 

" Then the Great Spirit tried again. He took 
another large piece of clay and out of it he 
formed another man, and put him into the oven 
to bake. As he had kept the first man in too 
long, he did not keep this second one in long 
enough, and so, to his disgust, when he took him 
out he found that he was still very white. See- 
ing this, the Great Spirit was still very much 
annoyed, and addressing the white man he said : 
* You will never do. You will get dirty too easily.' 

" So he threw him across the sea to the land 
from which the white man comes. 

" Then the Great Spirit tried again. He took 
another piece of clay and carefully preparing 
another man out of it, he put him into the oven 
to bake. Gaining experience by the other two 
failures, the Great Spirit so carefully watched 
this third one, that when he took him out of the 
oven, he was a nice, red color. He said : 

" ' You just right ; 3^ou stay here in America.' 
This red man was the first Indian. 



Life in the Wigwams 24 1 

" Before these different men were sent away to 
their different parts of the earth the Great Spirit 
gave each of them a wife of his own color, and 
told them to go and take possession of their own 
lands and be happy. 

" After some time the Great Spirit came down 
to the earth and called the men of different 
colors to meet him. He enquired of their wel- 
fare, and to his great surprise found out from 
them that they were very unhappy and misera- 
ble. When he asked the reason why this was 
the case, they replied that while it was fine to 
be possessors of such large parts of the country, 
yet as the Great Spirit had given them nothing 
to do, they found the time long and so they were 
unhappy. 

" * Oh,' said the Great Spirit, ' if that is the 
matter, I will soon fix that for you.' So the Great 
Spirit told them to meet him again at a certain 
place in a few days. At the time appointed, 
they were all there and full of curiosity to see 
what he was going to do for them. 

" They discovered that he had brought with 
him three bundles of dififerent sizes. One was 
quite large and bulky, the next was much 
smaller, and the third was indeed but a small 
affair. 

Now ' said the Great Spirit, ' as there are 



(< ( 



242 The Battle of the Bears 

three of you, and these bundles are of different 
sizes, you men will have to cast lots which of 
you shall have the first choice.' 

" Then the men cast lots, and the black man got 
the first choice, so he quickly took possession of 
the largest bundle. When he had opened it, he 
found that it consisted of hoes, spades, axes, and 
other implements of hard work. 

" The red man secured the second choice, and 
he took possession of the next largest bundle. 
When he opened it, he found it contained bows 
and arrows, and knives, spears and lassoes, the 
implements of the hunter. 

" Now there was only left the small bundle for 
the white man. When he opened it, it was found 
to contain only a book. At the sight of it, the 
Indian and black man laughed and made fun of 
him. But the Great Spirit reproved them, and 
said : 

" ' You may laugh now, but you will not laugh 
long, for that book is a book of knowledge, and 
if the white man studies it, it will make him 
wise and clever, and he will yet be the master 
of both of you.' 

" And so," added the story teller, " the white 
man studied that book, and as the result he is 
the master everywhere, none of us are as clever 
and cunning as he is." 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
Splendid as Well as Amusing Progress 

Light and shadows. Visiting Indians seeking for light and instruc- 
tion. Their new fields explored. The Indian's ambition for 
progress. Worthy but sometimes laughable. The sets — the 
hoops. Wigwams give place to comfortable houses — and clean- 
liness. 



XVII 

So rapidly and thoroughly had the work of 
evangelizing the Indians at the first mis- 
sion field — which Mr. Evans, its founder, 
had called Rossville — been carried on since its 
establishment, that there was now but little real 
missionary work to be done there, beyond what 
is incidental to an ordinary church, in a Chris- 
tian land. Every vestige of the old pagan life 
was now gone from the actual residents. The 
people regularly attended the house of God and 
by their consistent lives showed the genuineness 
of the transformation wrought by the power of 
the gospel. We had occasional visits from pa- 
gan Indians, who frequently awoke the echoes 
around us with their monotonous drummings. 
While but little disturbed by the weird sounds, 
which, after the excitement and interest of the 
first nights, only acted as lullabies to soothe us 
to more refreshing slumber, we could not but 
admire the zeal and persistency with which they 
kept up their devotions, of which the drumming 
formed so conspicuous a part. Some of the old 
conjurors would hammer away at their magic 

245 



246 The Battle of the Bears 

drums for twenty-four hours, without cessation. 
In these days when there is such an outcry 
against lengthy services and long sermons, and 
when so few Christians spend at least an hour a 
day in communion and fellowship with God in 
prayer and meditation, it will not hurt any of us 
to be reminded of the zeal and devotion of many, 
yes, of vast multitudes who so outstrip us in their 
zeal, as they worship dumb idols, or are the 
votaries of degrading superstitions. Let us not 
be outdone in our devotions by the zealous devo- 
tees of false religions. 

Polygamy abounded among the Indians from 
time immemorial. The great chiefs in the earlier 
days generally had several wives. The number 
they kept depended upon ability to support 
them, although in many instances the wives, by 
their toil and skill as huntresses, really did all 
of the hard work, while their lazy husbands lived 
lives of almost complete indolence. 

Polygamy is now rapidly dying out. The 
teachings of the gospel, and the fact that the 
government in paying annuities, recognizes only 
one wife, have had much to do with its disap- 
pearance. Still in a few pagan families it still 
prevails. Two wives are not uncommon among 
the remote tribes, but even there the custom will 
soon cease. 



splendid as Well as Amusing Progress 247 

Many of these wandering pagan Indians were 
induced to come to our church services. As a 
general thing they were respectful and orderly 
in their conduct. Yet there were times when 
some of them, in sheer ignorance, went beyond 
the bounds of what was generally expected in the 
house of God. For them to take out their big 
pipes and smoke during the sermon, was quite a 
common occurrence. 

We visited these newcomers at their wigwams 
and invited them to our mission home. With 
them we had many earnest talks about Chris- 
tianity, and we encouraged them to tell us of 
their hopes and fears, and of their own beliefs, 
and what they expected to get from them. 
Things wise and otherwise, were said by them, 
and there was much for serious thought and re- 
flection. In al] their hearts was a craving after 
some vague, indefinable good which they seemed 
to know existed somewhere for them, but which 
eluded all their efforts to secure. To find it 
they, at times, went off" into the Avoods and 
fasted, and, in their way, prayed. That it might 
come to them, some of them prepared their magic 
medicine-bags and beat upon their magic drums. 
But from all whom I could induce to unburden 
their heavily-laden hearts, there was ever the 
sad, disappointed response : 



248 The Battle of the Bears 

" No voice answers us and no comfort comes 
into our hearts." 

Marvellous indeed was the contrast between 
their words and the utterances of " blessed as- 
surance " expressed by the same Indians after 
their conversion to Christianity. Old things had 
passed away and all things had become new. 
Doubts and uncertainties had given way to a 
sweet, abiding faith, and the conscious knowl- 
edge of Him whom they believed. 

The great, solemn fact had come home to me 
with startling vividness, that the vast, weary, 
waiting multitudes, groping in the dark for 
something the}^ cannot find, yet with a cling- 
ing consciousness that it is in existence 
somewhere, are more ready to receive from our 
hands this blessed boon, which is the gospel of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, than most of us have any 
idea of. Once convinced that those who bring 
the message to them really love them, and that 
nothing but pure love has influenced them in 
coming, the Indians will come as never in the 
past, for the most constraining, drawing power 
in the world is love. 

" Missionar}^," said a stubborn opposer as at 
length he yielded and became a Christian, " I 
accept this religion of the Book because I have 
seen your love for me and for my people. You 



Splendid as Well as Amusing Progress 249 

gave medicine to cure us ; you divided your food 
with us when my gun failed to kill the deer ; 
you helped me with your own hands to get my 
land ready to plant, and then you gave me po- 
tatoes to plant ; you gave us good advice during 
the week days, and so I have decided that as 
what you say on the Sabbath is from the same 
heart, I must receive it." 

Following this heart reception of Christianity 
came, as there always does, a longing for a bet- 
ter and more satisfactory condition of temporal 
affairs. This showed itself in a desire for better 
clothing, more comfortable dwellings, and a more 
abundant and constant supply of food for the 
families. The result was more industry. The 
fur-hunters, as they became Christians and now 
realized their obligations to care for their wives 
and children, were more industrious and perse- 
vering in their efforts. They now brought 
in large quantities of the beautiful furs of the 
otter, minks, martens, bears, black and silver 
foxes, as well as great numbers of skins of wolves, 
wild cats, and others of lesser value. These they 
wisely traded for essential and comfortable ar- 
ticles of apparel, for the different members of the 
household, instead of, as was often the case in 
the past, lavishing most on the favorite wife, or, 
what was worse, still squandering all for rum. 



250 The Battle of the Bears 

This change was, of course, a benediction and 
filled our hearts with thankfulness, especially as, 
from the pulpit, I saw before me our people now 
so well dressed and looking so comfortable and 
happy. In this transition period from the old 
to the new, some amusing things occurred. As 
is well known, the Indians have luxuriant hair. 
Baldness is practically unknown among them. 
Up to this time the young maidens had been 
careless in cleaning and arranging their hair, so 
the wife of the missionary took a number of them 
in hand and taught them how to braid up their 
tresses and coil them in a becoming manner. As 
hairpins and high combs were practically un- 
known, much difficulty was experienced in keep- 
ing the braids and tresses in place. This was ob- 
viated at length by teaching the girls how to make 
nets, in which the braids could be nicely ar- 
ranged. These at once became very popular and 
the girls and young women looked very well on 
the Lord's day, as, in scores, they came to the 
church with their hair so neatly braided and 
held in place by the nets, which were made of 
silk thread or chenille. 

But the spirit of imitation was abroad, and 
the young Indian maidens were ever on the alert 
to see what the palefaces were doing and ever 
anxious to copy their customs. 



splendid as Well as Amusing Progress 251 

It happened that about this time an officer in 
the Hudson's Bay service went down to the Sel- 
kirk Settlement at Red River, and there mar- 
ried a charming young lady and proudly brought 
her back with him to Norway House Fort. The 
next Sunday after their arrival they came over 
with several other officials and worshipped with 
us in our Indian Mission Church. 

The wedding had excited a good deal of in- 
terest in our quiet community, and so this first 
appearance of the bride and bridegroom in our 
church, caused no little excitement among the 
Indians. The bride looked very handsome as 
she walked up the aisle and took her place in a 
square pew at the right of the pulpit. She was 
seated with her back to the wall, so that, when 
she stood up during the singing, she faced the 
large audience. She had on a pretty fringed 
veil that reached only to the end of her nose. 
This short veil seemed, if we may judge by what 
followed, to have attracted more attention than 
any other part of the beautiful apparel. The 
service began in due time. The hymn was an- 
nounced and sung, and then the congregation 
bowed with the missionary in prayer. Fancy, 
if you can, how the missionary felt as, after 
closing with the Lord's Prayer, he opened his 
eyes and saw that, while he had been praying, a 



252 The Battle of the Bears 

large number of the Indian girls had been busily 
emploj^ed in pulling forward and nicely adjust- 
ing their hair nets over their faces, to look as 
much as possible like the little veil on the bride. 
I must confess that it was difficult for the mis- 
sionary to go on with the service, as those girls 
sat there until the end without a smile on one 
of their impassive faces, although of course their 
actions afforded any amount of amusement to 
the few whites who "were present. 

Another instance of this spirit of imitation, 
quite as laughable, occurred some time after. 
Then the wife of the Chief Factor at Norway 
House, left us one summer to spend the follow- 
ing winter in Toronto. She returned the next 
summer, and the first Sunday after, she came 
over with her husband and others to w^orship 
with us at the mission. It was long ago, when 
crinoline was much worn. Up to this time that 
style had not reached our lonely, isolated station. 
However, this lady had now brought it with her 
and so, arrayed in all this extended attire, she 
sailed into our church, literally filling the nar- 
row aisle as she marched along. 

Of course there was some excitement, although 
it was quiet and subdued, among the Indians. 
When the service closed the Indian women all 
kept their seats until the grand lady in this new 



splendid as Well as Amusing Progress 253 

and wonderful apparel should march out with 
her husband. Very quietly, but most thor- 
oughly, was she scrutinized by their observant 
eyes. It was evident that they quickly dis- 
cerned that hoops had much to do with the new 
fashion, for hardly had twenty-four hours rolled 
by ere nearly every barrel around the mission 
premises was denuded of its hoops, and one 
day I found that even the old ash barrel had 
fallen to pieces. What had become of its hoops 
I discovered next Sunday, when I saw the awk- 
ward attempts of some Indian maidens to crowd 
into the narrow seats, much encumbered by the 
inelastic ash-barrel hoops. 

Thus even in that lonely land we had at 
times much to laugh at, while we also rejoiced 
that this spirit of imitation was ever leading the 
people to strive to improve their condition, not 
only as regards their dress, their food, their 
habitations, but also their lives. 

With Christianity came the desire for better 
and more comfortable homes. This desire was 
of course encouraged, and so the dogs were set 
to work and logs were dragged by them from 
the forest. Tools were secured by the mission- 
ary, or borrowed from the fur-traders, and soon 
comfortable little houses were built. As there 
were no sawmills, pit-saws were kept busy, 



254 '^^^ Battle of the Bears 

boards were made and soon the houses were com- 
pleted. As the years went by better ones were 
built. Some now occupied are quite comfort- 
able and have many conveniences. They are 
homes, happy Christian homes, where the 
cruel, callous selfishness of the past is unknown, 
for love now dwells in every heart and each 
member of the household does his or her share 
to add to the happiness of the others, and, best 
of all, the love of God is shed abroad in their 
hearts, and this gives the highest happiness. 

In those little Christian homes there is a fam- 
il}^ altar. The blessed Book is there read every 
day, and then the family bow down before God 
and the head of the house offers up earnest, be- 
lieving praj^er to Him whose ears are ever open 
to the petitions and requests of His children. 



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 

Necessity of early education. Some of the wild animals are marvel- 
lously clever. The wolverine — the most cunning of all — how 
caught after many attempts. The industrious beavers — their fore- 
thought and skill. Pleasant life among the Indians — their su- 
perior wisdom in many things — their loyalty and anxiety in times 
of danger. 



XVIII 

FROM time immemorial the Cree Indians 
of the woods made their living by hunt- 
ing and fishing. Living as they did in a 
forest country, where great lakes and rivers 
abounded, they were not only good fishermen, 
but clever hunters. 

As soon as a baby boy was able to run around, 
a bow and arrow were placed in his hands and 
he was quickly taught how to use them. It was 
a great day in his history when he shot his first 
bird or rabbit. There were many congratula- 
tions and many predictions of his future success 
as a hunter. Then when he killed his first deer 
or bear of course these congratulations were re- 
peated, often with a tribal feast in which the 
animal slain was eaten, with much ceremony. 

While bears, wolves and several varieties of 
deer are hunted and shot in considerable num- 
bers by the Cree and Saulteaux Indians, it is, 
after all, the smaller animals that are of the 
greatest value to them. The rich fur-bearing 
animals such as the beaver, otter, mink, marten, 
fisher, wolverine, ermine, sable, and even the 

257 



258 The Battle of the Bears 

muskrat, are of great worth, as their furs are 
eagerly sought after and purchased by the fur- 
traders. Of all the furs thus obtained, the most 
valuable are those of the black and silver foxes. 

To be a skillful, successful hunter, requires 
long years of patient study and practice. So 
clever and cunning are some of the animals that 
they seem to be able to thwart all the devices 
and schemes of the most experienced hunters. 
As I visited these Indians in their wigwams, or 
at their camp-fires, I was often very much inter- 
ested with the stories they related of their suc- 
cess or failures, as they pitted their reason and 
experience against the sagacity and cunning of 
the four-footed animals. 

The wolverines, especiall}^, were ever the ob- 
ject of the hunter's ire, for there were at times 
some of them which prowled around and did a 
great amount of injury, yet were so marvellously 
cunning that for a time no expedient that could 
be devised by the hunters, succeeded in their 
capture. There was one, especially, that Mama- 
nowatum (Big Tom) used to talk about, that for 
years lurked around in several hunting grounds, 
as the very incarnation of evil. He would, some 
nights, visit and destroy scores of traps and dead- 
falls which had been arranged b}^ hunters on the 
previous day for the capture of otters, minks, 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 259 

martens and other animals. If the deer-hunters 
succeeded in killing a moose or a couple of rein- 
deer, while they hurried away to their tents for 
their sleds the wolverine would frequently dis- 
cover the game, and after carrying away all he 
could, would leave the rest with such an offen- 
sive odor that a starving dog would not touch it. 

The way in which the cunning rascal was 
finally captured was this : The Indians borrowed 
from me some large steel traps, which they set 
in a number of places around one of their ordi- 
nary mink traps. So clever was the old wolver- 
ine, however, that he discovered them, although 
they were all set under a thin covering of snow. 
As though to show his contempt of the trick, he 
not only dug up and sprung each trap, but some 
of them he carried over a hundred feet away. 

Several times did he outwit the hunters, until 
one day in sheer desperation, Mamanowatum 
and some others, carefully setting some of the 
traps as before, left a couple of the largest ones 
when set, lying carelessly on the ground. While 
cunningly moving about and springing the ones 
thus set, the animal seems to have been thrown 
off his guard, and was found with one of his 
hind legs caught in one of those exposed traps. 
The Indians said that in passing it he had kicked 
at it in contempt and had thus lost his life. 



26o The Battle of the Bears 

There was great rejoicing when he was cap- 
tured and many an Indian was glad, for he 
knew that for a time, at least, his traps and 
snares would not be molested. 

So my traps, while I seldom used them myself 
proved a blessing in thus capturing this mis- 
chievous animal. 

I think I loved best to hear my Indians talk 
about the beavers, those most industrious and 
clever animals, that build for themselves houses 
very much warmer and stronger than are the wig- 
wams of the people. They are still quite numer- 
ous in some parts of that country, and every 
3^ear the Hudson's Bay Company, the greatest 
fur-trading company in the world, sends out 
many thousands of them, which are much prized 
for their warmth as well as for their beauty. 

While beavers live on the land for a long time 
without any apparent suffering, yet in their wild 
state the}^ seem to prefer to spend at least half of 
their time under water. 

The queerest thing about beavers is their great, 
broad, flat tails, which are covered with scales 
instead of fur, like the rest of their bodies. This 
large tail is not only their rudder when swim- 
ming, but is also used as a mason's trowel, when 
they are building their dams and houses. When 
playing in the water they can strike the sur- 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 261 

face with such force that the noise is like the 
report of a pistol. The intelligence and skill 
which they display in the construction of their 
dams and houses, have ever won the admiration 
of all who have had the privilege of examining 
them. No trained engineer can more scientific- 
ally throw a dam across a stream than can the 
beavers. To accomplish this purpose they will 
cut down trees over two feet in diameter, and 
will throw them exactly where they wish them 
in the construction of the dam. They will cut 
up trees into logs, and place them in positions 
that apparently would have required a span of 
horses. They will industriously fit into the 
spaces between these logs an enormous quantity 
of smaller pieces of timber and brush, and then 
will add stones, gravel, and mud, and pack the 
whole together in a perfectly water-tight struc- 
ture that will resist any flood that may assail it. 
And what is more, they will build the dam so 
that it will throw back the water to exactly the 
height they wish it to rise in their houses, which 
are built half on the shore and half projecting 
over the water. In times of freshets, they open 
sluice-ways in the dam, through which to run 
off the surplus water ; and in times of drought 
they close every outlet, until they bring the 
water up to the desired level. 



262 The Battle of the Bears 

In addition to their houses, which they build 
with walls so thick and hard that no wolf or 
wolverine can possibly break through them, 
they construct what the Indians call " kitchens," 
in various secluded spots along the edge of the 
pond, to which they can quietly swim and there 
hide themselves if attacked in their homes by 
hunters. 

Thus they toil incessantl}'. And they are all 
at it ! Even the little beavers have work to do, 
for it is expected of them that while the old 
beavers are building the dam and constructing 
the houses, the young half-grown beavers will 
be busil}'- employed in getting the winter's supply 
of food. This consists of the young saplings of 
birch and poplar, which they cut down with 
their teeth, and drag to the pond and there 
fasten, either by sticking one end in the mud, or 
else by piling stones and gravel upon them and 
so keeping them at the bottom of the pond until 
required. The bark of these young trees and 
branches, is all the food the beaver needs during 
the long winters. This work of securing suffi- 
cient food is left wholly to the young beavers, 
who generally have an old one to oversee the 
task. He is often very cross, and even cruel, to 
them if they become lazy and try to shirk their 
work. 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 263 

Beavers, if captured when young, can easily 
be trained. Over at the trading post, a couple 
of miles from where we lived, the gentleman in 
charge had a young beaver given him by an In- 
dian. By kindness and patience, he so tamed 
it that it would follow him around like a dog. 
He kept it in his home until it was fully grown. 
One night he left it in his dining room. When 
the door was opened the next morning, there 
was hardly an article of furniture that was not 
ruined. The beaver, with his sharp powerful 
teeth, had cut off the legs of some chairs and a 
table, and had arranged the pieces nicely in a 
half circle in one corner of the room, in the way 
in which these clever animals generally begin 
the foundations of their houses. The gentle- 
man decided that such an industrious animal 
was too expensive to keep running around where 
furniture was so valuable, and so he shipped 
him off to the Zoological Gardens in London, 
England. 

It was very interesting to chat with my peo- 
ple and to draw them out in conversation on 
things that they knew so much more about 
than I did. 

Then, of course, on the other hand, I was 
kept busy answering questions and telling them 
various things about white people and their in- 



264 The Battle of the Bears 

ventions and discoveries, and gradually inter- 
esting them in the Christian life. I fortunatel}^ 
had with me a large library, and so, with pic- 
tures and illustrations, I was able to interest 
them very much. Some were naturally incred- 
ulous about many things. 

I had a fairly good magic lantern with some 
hundreds of slides on various subjects. These 
afforded an almost endless source of pleasure 
and instruction, although some of the more 
superstitious Indians, especially some old Saul- 
teaux, were almost terrified at first. One old 
conjuror, however, mustered up enough courage 
to crawl in under the sheet in the darkness, " to 
see," as he afterwards told me, " whether I was 
invoking the aid of the Good or the Bad Spirit, 
to help me in making so much ' medicine.' " 

Thus in various ways I tried to bring to the 
people things that would make their lives wider 
and better. So limited was their horizon that it 
was a very great pleasure for me to see them be- 
coming interested in things beyond those of 
their every-day, narrow vision. 

It was often amusing to hear their quaint re- 
marks and original criticisms, as ideas new and 
strange were revealed to them. 

I have ever found that among such people 
one great way to succeed was to honor them 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 265 

along those lines where they were more skilled 
and experienced than I was. This can be better 
explained by illustration. For example, when 
travelling on my long canoe journeys, some- 
times it would happen that when we came to a 
great lake across which we were to go, we would 
find the waves so high, and the winds so strong 
that my canoemen would be uncertain whether 
to go on, or to wait until the storm was abated. 
In their perplexity they would sometimes ask 
my advice. 

" Missionary, shall we risk it and go on, or 
had we better make the camp and wait until it 
is more calm ? " 

My invariable reply would be : 

" I know nothing about it. You know more 
than I do. You know how big a sea your canoe 
can stand, and so I leave it all to you. If you 
say : 

" ' Let us go on,' why that settles it ; but if 
you say: 'Let us camp,' why that settles it. It 
is for you to decide, not me." 

Some might consider this weakness on my 
part, but it was nothing of the kind. It was 
respecting the judgment of the men who knew, 
along those lines, vastly more than I did myself. 
And this respect was understood and appreci- 
ated by them and kept them on their mettle to 



266 The Battle of the Bears 

be ever worthy of it. Where I knew best, and 
it was right that I should be master, I kept my 
position ; but I should have been foolish indeed, 
and should perhaps have imperilled our lives, if 
I had dictated what should have been done in 
summer storms or winter blizzards. 

" How is it," said a brother missionary to me, 
'' that although you are the hardest driver, and 
make the longest and most rapid journeys with 
3'our dogs in winter and canoe in summer, the 
Indians are all wild to have you engage them 
for your trips ? " 

My answer was as explained above, that T ever 
treated them as brothers and men, who, along 
some lines of education, were more highly taught 
than I, and that when emergencies arose, I had 
common sense enough to let those who were best 
fitted for the crisis, decide what had better be 
done. 

I have nothing but pleasant memories of those 
faithful men who so well served me through 
those eventful years of my life. Storms in 
summer might increase to cyclones, and win- 
ter tempests change into fierce, treacherous bliz- 
zards, yet their courage never faltered and their 
resourcefulness never seemed exhausted. No ac- 
cident seemed to be without some compensation, 
and no emergency could arise but they seemed 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 267 

able to overcome it. Then their watchful care 
over me and unostentatious deeds for my personal 
safety and comfort were beyond all praise. 

Once when crossing a deep bay on Lake Win- 
nipeg with our dogs in November, the ice proved 
unsafe, and we were all nearly lost in the deep 
waters into which we were plunged. That night 
at the camp on Montreal Point, I overheard the 
following words from the guide, who had that 
day changed places with a young, inexperienced 
Indian, who had asked to be allowed to run on 
ahead and had thus nearly run us all to destruc- 
tion : 

" You have disgraced us all. Our missionary 
was nearly drowned. What will the people say 
when they hear of his narrow escape ? We might 
have been drowned also ! Well, what of that ? 
We do not amount to much : but just think of 
our missionary being in such danger. In future 
you will stay behind, and I will take good care 
that his life is not put in such danger again." 
And he faithfully kept his word. 

This is one example, and with one more in- 
stance of their unselfish love, this chapter must 
close. 

It was in summer time, and we were on one 
of my long toilsome trips to Burntwood River 
to visit the Nelson River Indians, there camp- 



268 The Battle of the Bears 

ing. Vast forest fires had ranged through the 
land, and so everything was black and deso- 
late. 

I noticed at dinner one day, as we sat on the 
smooth rock for our midday meal, that my In- 
dians ate hardly anything. This surprised me, 
as they, like myself, had such vigorous appetites 
on those arduous trips in the open air. 

When I asked the reason why they were not 
eating, all the answer I could get out of them 
was, *' Keyam " (never mind). 

Thinking they had some good reason which 
they did not care to disclose, I said nothing more 
about it until the next meal. Then when I ob- 
served that they still refrained from eating, I 
again inquired the reason and received the same 
answer, ** Keyam ! Keyam ! " 

Knowing something of their natures, I once 
more refrained from further inquiries. 

Next morning they still refused to eat, and 
began quietly smoking their pipes, while I sat 
down to the meal prepared for me. Inviting 
them to begin their breakfast, I was met with 
the same word, " Keyam." 

I confess I was somewhat alarmed, and so, 
throwing down my knife and fork on the rock, 
I impulsively said : " It is not ' Keyam.' I 
want to know what is the matter. If you are 



The Indian Hunter as a Comrade 269 

sick tell me ; I have medicine, perhaps I can 
cure you." 

Seeing I was resolved not to eat until I had 
some explanation of their refusal, the older one 
quietly said : 

" Well, missionary, if you must know, it is this. 
We are passing through this burned country 
where the fire has destroyed all of the game. 
There is nothing to shoot and there are no fish 
that we can obtain in these waters. Our canoe 
does not hold much food. We do not know 
when we shall be able to shoot more. What lit- 
tle we have we are keeping for you. We love 
our missionary too much to let him get hungry. 
We are both going without that you may have 
enough. That is all we have to say." 

Here these stalwart fellows who were paddling 
my canoe twelve or fourteen hours a day, were 
actually starving themselves that the missionary 
might not be hungry, and it was only with the 
greatest difficulty that he could get them to re- 
veal the fact ! 

Yet some folks wonder why I love the Indians. 
Is it strange, when such instances as the above, 
of their unselfish, disinterested love, were fre- 
quently occurring ? 



CHAPTER NINETEEN 
Why I Gave the Marriage Feast 

The sudden marriage of an old couple. Mary's suggestive words, 
Old William's sbrewduess and the wedding feast, 



XIX 

" T S it not customary now when you have a 

I wedding, to have a wedding feast? " 
" Certainly," I replied. 

'' And is it not expected that the one who gets 
up the wedding will give the feast ? " 

" Yes," I answered. 

'* Well," replied the shrewd, cunning old In- 
dian with a glint of triumph in his eye, " who 
got up this wedding?" 

Thus the old fellow had me, and everybody 
laughed at my discomfiture, and William's tri- 
umph. 

So now we must go back and explain how it 
all happened. 

In the wild state of the Indians the marriage 
ceremonies were very simple affairs. The con- 
sent of the fathers, who had the right to sell 
their daughters to those who brought them a 
sufficient price, was often all that was considered 
necessary, and even if the maiden had a lover to 
whom she was secretly attached it mattered 
not ; if her father had sold her, she was now 
considered the property of the buyer. Among 
some of the tribes there would be some little 

273 



274 The Battle of the Bears 

giving of presents and a marriage feast, but it 
was not very common. 

Among others, there were, in addition to 
the feast, which often consisted of roasted dogs, 
attendant ceremonies that were far from being 
commendable. 

At Norway House, where this incident oc- 
curred, the early missionaries abolished the sell- 
ing of the daughters, much to the indignation 
of some of the old fathers, who, having a goodly 
number of girls, were looking to their sales for 
the means of their maintenance. They also 
saw, as the influences of Christianity spread 
among the people, the old dog feasts and others 
about as objectionable, fall into disuse. The 
people were, however, encouraged to have in 
connection with the now Christian marriages, a 
generous hearty feast of the best things their 
country afforded. 

It was in connection with one of these mar- 
riages followed by a feast, for which great prep- 
arations had long been made, that our incident 
occurred. 

I had nearl}'^ finished marrying a couple of 
fine young Indians of our best families, in the 
presence of a large crowd in our mission church. 

Sitting on the floor, but a few feet from me on 
the left, were a couple of aged pagan Indians. 



Why I Gave the Marriage Feast 275 

The old man was vigorously pulling at his pipe, 
and, at times, as the ceremony proceeded, he was 
heard to utter some words of dissent against the 
whole proceeding. 

As I caught some of these words, which 
seemed to be more growled out than spoken, I 
waited only until I had completed the marriage 
ceremony, and then, while the young bride and 
bridegroom were receiving the congratulations of 
their friends, I turned rather sharply to the old 
pagan on the floor and said : " Were you never 
married with the Book?" This is the Indian 
way of describing a Christian marriage. 

An emphatic " Numma " (no), was the re- 
sponse. 

" Well," I replied, " it is about time you 
were. How did you get your wife?" 

Giving the old woman who was quietly seated 
by his side with a blanket wrapped around her, 
a poke in the ribs with his long pipe stem, he 
answered : 

" I bought her." 

" How much did you give for her ? " I asked. 

^'A gun and two blankets," was the reply, 
** and it was too much." 

Repeating my question I said : 

''If you did pay that for her, were you never 
married with the Book ? " 



276 The Battle of the Bears 

Again came the decided, " Numma ! " 

" What is your name ? " I asked. 

" Jackoose," was the answer. 

" Well, I am going to call you William." 

Turning to the old wife who sat beside him, I 
inquired of her what was her name. 

" Keseememah," she replied. 

" I will call you Mary," I answered. 

" Now, William and Mary," I said, " I want 
you both to stand up here where that young 
man and w^oman stood whom you saw me 
marry." 

The young couple and their immediate friends 
had formed the marriage procession and had 
gone away to the bride's home where the feast 
was to be held. Many of the audience who had 
heard what had passed between the old couple 
on the floor and myself, becoming interested, 
had remained, so there was still a good audience. 

" Get up and stand here before me," I re- 
peated. 

The old woman made no delay, but the old 
fellow was loth to stir. However, a little more 
persuasion brought him to his feet, and soon he 
was in the place designated. After a few prelim- 
inary words, I said : 

" Please join hands." Not a movement was 
made. 



Why I Gave the Marriage Feast 277 

" Give him your right hand, Mary," I said. 

As she held it out to him, William, at first, 
did not seem to notice it. 

** Take hold of her hand with your right hand," 
I said, perhaps a little sternly. 

Reluctantly he complied with my request, but 
it was in about the same way that a fastidious 
person would take hold of the tail of a dead fish. 

" Grip it right," I said, and he obeyed. 

Then I went on with the ceremony and made 
him promise to love her and to cherish her and to 
be kind to her, and, well, I made him promise 
lots of things not in the liturgy. 

Then they again joined hands, and Mary 
responded in her old falsetto voice, but she did 
not have to say " obey," for I never asked any 
woman, red, black or white, to say that word. 
What is the use? 

So in due time they were married, but with- 
out a ring, as there was not one to be had in that 
crowd. After the ceremony was over and Will- 
iam and Mary, there standing, were being con- 
gratulated by the Indians present, Mary for the 
first time spoke up, and her words are worth re- 
membering, for while they only caused an Indian 
" Ugh," from her old husband, they were so sug- 
gestive and significant that they brought a mist 
to my eyes and a lump to my throat. 



278 The Battle of the Bears 

Looking her husband in the face Mary said, 
as for the first time she addressed him by the 
new name I had given him : 

*' William, that is the first time you ever took 
my hand in yours and said you loved me." 

Some of the audience laughed, and William 
seemed half annoyed and perhaps a bit angry. 
But I could not laugh, and as the full significance 
of all it meant to her dawned on me, I could 
have wept. Just think of it ! She had been his 
wife for perhaps fifty years. Their children 
were all grown up and away in wigwams of their 
own. As when they started life together, they 
were once more alone. Loyal and true to him, 
she had endured the summer heat and wintry 
cold. She had starved, suffered wants innumera- 
ble, and had faced death in the blizzard storms 
and in many other ways. All the drudgery and 
toil of their hard, sad life had been hers to en- 
dure. He would hunt and fish, but absolutely 
nothing else would he do. And yet through it 
all, he had never condescended to give her one 
kind word of cheer or even to assure her of his 
love. 

" You never said that you loved me," and the 
pitiable old face that bore the scars of many sor- 
rows and hardships, seemed to wail out what had 
been the pleading heart-longing of half a century. 



Why I Gave the Marriage Feast 279 

Oh, husbands and wives, parents and children 
in ten thousand times ten thousand happy 
homes, where pure affection dwells, where lov- 
ing, cheering words are not stinted, where by 
them many a heavy burden is made light, and 
many a deep sorrow is chased away, and many 
a day of gloom becomes bright and radiant, is it 
not because of the mutual love and affection that 
there dwells, and that is not afraid to let it now 
and then be seen and heard ? 

" Eeserve not your kisses for my cold dead brow, 
If you have any love for me, let me hear it now." 

These were the thoughts that went surging 
through me as I mused on old Mary's words. 
But they produced not the slightest effect on 
William, with perhaps the exception of a little 
annoyance. The astute old fellow was thinking 
of something else. 

After a number had spoken to him, he turned 
to me and said, as in the beginning of this 
chapter : 

" Missionary ? " 

" Well, William, what is it ? " 

"Is it not customary now when you have a 
wedding to have a wedding feast ? " 

" Certainly," I replied. 



28o The Battle of the Bears 

" And is it not expected that the one who gets 
up the wedding will give the feast ? " 

" Yes," I answered. 

" Well," replied the sharp old fellow, " who 
got up this wedding? " 

What could I say? The people saw the point, 
and laughed, and William laughed, as well as 
he knew how, and when I saw how cleverly he 
had caught me, I laughed, and my wife who 
was present and enjoyed my perplexity, why, 
she laughed and said : 

" You have been well caught, Egerton. That 
was a clever trap William laid for you, and into 
it you have fallen." Then, good soul that she 
is, she added : 

" You will have to carry out the programme 
with the old couple. Fortunately we have 
plenty of food, so bring them into the mission 
house and we will give them a marriage feast." 

Then away she hurried to make the needful 
preparations. 

It did not take long for the news to spread 
that Ookemasquao (Mrs. Young) was busy, with 
some Indian girls, preparing a wedding feast for 
old Jackoose, now called William, and Mary. To 
a wedding feast all the relatives, even to the 
most remote cousins, are expected to come. It 
was astonishing, the number who on this oc- 



Why I Gave the Marriage Feast 281 

casion claimed to be relatives of William and 
Mary. And come they did, and although they 
filled the house we made them all welcome and 
gave them the best feast possible. All of them 
in their quiet way seemed very happy, but none 
more so than old Mary, and her greatest bliss 
seemed to be that after all these fifty years of 
life with William, at length she had heard him 
say that he loved her. 



CHAPTER TWENTY 
The Sign Language and Pictography 

A necessity owing to their diversity of dialects. Not anxious to 
learn the languages of their enemies. Eager to be adepts iu the 
sign languages. Pictography common to all tribes and much 
used. 



XX 



EVERY careful student of the Indians has 
been impressed with the great number 
and diversity of their languages. 
Not only has every tribe its own language, 
more or less distinct from that of others, but 
there may also be in the same tribe a dozen or 
more dialects, almost unintelligible except to 
the small bands that use them. This is, per- 
haps, not to be wondered at when we see, even 
among great civilized nations, in the course of 
centuries how diverse become the dialects in 
different parts of those same nationalities. Take 
the different counties of England or the prov- 
inces of France, for example, and we find 
strange variations in language. The French in- 
habitants of Canada are mostly descended from 
the noblest families of France. Two hundred 
years ago, or even less, they talked and wrote 
in that flexible and courtly language as well as 
the best educated people in France. Now, after 
a few generations, the patois of the ordinary 
French Canadian habitant is despised and 
laughed at in la belle France. 

285 



286 The Battle of the Bears 

It is, then, no surprise to us that the Indian 
tribes, destitute of a literature, and widely sep- 
arated by their wars and the requirements of 
their hunting, should in time develop such 
diversities and variations from the original lan- 
guage of the great family from which so many 
of them sprung. 

Take for example the great Algonquin race 
or tribe. 

The Algonquin-speaking people were found 
occupying America from Labrador to the 
Kocky Mountains, and from the border land of 
the Eskimo at Churchill river on the Hudson 
Bay, south to Pamlico Sound in North Caro- 
lina. They became subdivided into many 
tribes. The Abnaki, Blackfoot, Chippewa, 
Cree, Delaware, Micmac, Illinois, Massachu- 
setts, Menomonee, Ottawa, and many other In- 
dians, are all of the great Algonquin family. 
Philologists tell us from the structure of the 
different languages that they were originally all 
one. Yet how marvellous is the diversity now. 
What may be the cause of such a breaking up 
of the language, we can only conjecture. 

It is interesting, also, to note that, with per- 
luips a few exceptions, the Indians were ever 
loth to learn the language of any other tribe than 
their own. This was, perhaps, owing to their 



The Sign Language and Pictography 287 

native local pride, and also to the apparent, or 
assumed contempt which they held for their 
enemies. As wars were of such frequent occur- 
rence among them, they would doubtless think 
it beneath their dignity to learn the language of 
their foes. Neither did they make any effort to 
master the languages of friendly tribes, whose 
hunting-grounds bordered on their own. Two 
tribes might join in an alliance against some 
common foe, but they would, with but few ex- 
ceptions, refuse to master each other's language, 
beyond enough words to carry on the most ordi- 
nary conversation. The women would meet each 
other, or the children would muster and have 
their plays and mimic hunting-parties for hours 
together, yet not a word would be spoken by ariy 
one in any language but that of his own. Still, 
anomalous as it may appear, they perfectly un- 
derstood each other, for all the conversation was 
carried on in the sign language. 

The repugnance of some of the Indians to 
speaking in any other language than their own was 
at times surprising to us. Old Mary, the faithful 
nurse of our children, who went with us for some 
years into the land of the Saulteaux, could never 
be induced to speak a word of their tongue. 
She was a Cree and had some vague memory of 
evils wrought to her people by the Saulteaux of 



288 The Battle of the Bears 

generations past, and so she refused to utter a 
single word of their language. But in the com- 
mon sign manual she was proficient and had 
generally no trouble in making herself under- 
stood. If any of them were, as she thought, too 
stupid to read her rapidly made signs, she Avould 
pour out her wrath upon them in expressive 
Cree, with such vigor that they generall}^ fled 
from her. She had a violent temper and was 
considered by the Indians as " supernatural," as 
she had met with an accident that might have 
been expected to kill her, if she had had a dozen 
lives, but from which she had strangely recov- 
ered. Those superstitious Saulteaux feared her 
and dared not reply angrily to her, even when 
she gave them great provocation. 

It is an interesting fact that while the spoken 
languages among these various tribes of the great 
Algonquin family became so diverse, the sign 
language seems to have remained practically un- 
changed. This may have been owing to the fact 
that there was ever a strong desire among the 
people to be proficient in its use. The clever 
exponents of it were highly honored in the great 
councils where friendly chiefs met from differ- 
ent tribes. 

The language of signs is almost universal. 
Gestures and various significant movements of 



The Sign Language and Pictography 289 

different members of the body, even in ordinar}^ 
animated conversation, are common to all people. 
Our French friends and others of the same nerv- 
ous temperament, seem to outsiders to talk about 
as much with their hands and shoulders, and 
even eyebrows, as with their voices. But the 
genuine sign language of the North American 
Indians was conducted in as complete silence as 
that which prevails when deaf mutes are talking 
with each other. Not a single word was uttered 
on either side, even in a long conversation. The 
signs were so complicated that only an expert was 
able rapidly to converse with another, whether of 
his own or of a different tribe. Yet every man was 
supposed to acquire a sufficient knowledge of 
this universal sign language to carry on any nec- 
essary conversation with any Indian whom he 
might possibly meet, either as he travelled 
through the country, or was on his own hunting 
rounds. 

The signs used did not indicate words or let- 
ters, but each stood for some idea or bit of in- 
formation. For example, there was a sign that 
meant " instant attention," another " all is well," 
another, " you are in great danger," another, 
" retreat at once," and many others on various 
subjects. 

These experts could ask of each other such 



290 The Battle of the Bears 

questions as, " Is game plentiful ? Have you 
made a good hunt? Is the chief with you? Are 
the sick recovering? Will you soon return? 
Did you meet a wounded bear?" Thus, in the 
trail, or when passing each other on the lakes or 
rivers, be two men near or far apart, they could 
thus converse by signs without uttering a word. 

The sense of hearing in some animals is very 
acute. The stories that the hunters tell of the 
powers of hearing as well as scent possessed by 
many of the denizens of the forest are almost 
incredible ; so it is very convenient on a hunt- 
ing expedition to be able to converse in utter 
silence. 

The distance at which experts could, in this 
mute wa}', communicate with each other, of 
course depended much on their powers of vision 
and the clearness of the atmosphere. Living, 
as most of these Indian tribes did, in lands where 
fogs and mists were almost unknown, and with 
powers of vision that seem almost incredible to 
a white man, they were quite able, by freely 
using their arms, as well as their weapons if 
need be, to communicate at distances far greater 
than those at which the human voice, under or- 
dinary conditions, would be intelligible. This 
was especially true in a hilly or mountainous 
country, where their forms stood out in bold relief. 



The Sign Language and Pictography 291 

The study of the pictography of the Indians 
is also interesting. Some simple marks in the 
snow or on the sands that seem to the casual 
observer as insignificant, may contain much 
information. 

For example, I was once travelling with my 
dog trains, in winter, through a forest region, 
where the snow was very deep. Our route was 
due north. About noon we struck the trail of 
another party of travellers who had been going 
due west. They were aware of our coming from 
the south, and that we would cross their trail at 
this place, so the Indian guide had left a sign for 
our information. It was a simple little thing to 
me, and I was as ignorant after having had my 
attention called to it, as before, until it was ex- 
plained to me. It was only a mark of about a 
third of a circle made in the snow, running east 
and west. Then, from the centre, another mark 
had been deeply traced diverging a little to the 
west of north. This was all that I could see or 
comprehend. And yet, to my Indians there was 
the information that at about eleven o'clock in 
the forenoon two days before, that party had 
passed along the trail. 

When they told me they had thus read the 
sign, of course I asked for an explanation. 

This the guide readily gave me. He said the 



292 The Battle of the Bears 

circular mark in the snow represented the course 
of the sun in the sky. When this was made, 
then, at the point where the straight line joined 
the circular one, a stick was placed perfectly 
upright. With another stick the straight line 
in the snow was made, exactly where the shadow 
of the first stick fell. If it had been twelve 
o'clock, the shadow would have been in the 
centre of the part circle. But as it was not yet 
noon, the shadow fell a little to the west, where 
it would be as w^e saw, at about eleven o'clock. 
The signs being made, the sticks were thrown 
away. 

" But how do you know that it is two days 
since the party passed by ? " I asked. 

There was a faint smile at my ignorance, but 
the Indians were too polite to laugh at me. At 
once the guide, taking his hand out of his great 
glove, with his naked fingers pressed the snow 
that had been disturbed in the making of the 
marks, and showed me how it had gradually 
hardened, saying : 

" It has just hardened that much in two days." 

Of course I looked very wise and thanked him 
for his information, but I confess it was beyond 
my comprehension. 

Among an active, busy people, possessing no 
written language, and often living apart from 



The Sign Language and Pictography 293 

each other on account of the necessities of their 
lives as hunters, it was absolutely essential that 
there should be some way by which they could 
impart to each other information as to their 
movements and plans. 

In drawing III we have grouped some signs 
that are at once intelligible. 

In this first the family says : 

(1) " We have gone away for an uncertain 
time, and the stick points along the trail the 
direction in which we have gone." 

(2) " We have gone away for a short time, less 
than half of a day. This is indicated by the 
distance the small stick is placed from the end 
stuck in the snow or ground." 

(3) This one says : " We have gone away for 
the whole day." 

(4) The last one says : " We have gone away 
for five days." The rising sun indicates that in 
each case the famil}'' or persons making the jour- 
ney had left in the morning. 

This pictographic art, in more or less elabo- 
rateness, was common among many tribes. In 
many cases there was a considerable amount of 
skill, as well as ingenuity, displayed in con- 
veying the information which they wished to 
impart. 

The subjects which they illustrated were ex- 



294 The Battle of the Bears 

ceedingly varied. Some native artists had am- 
bition or conceit enough to prompt them to soar 
into the regions of the supernatural and en- 
deavor to picture scenes unknown to ordinary 
mortals. Dreams would be pictured out with 
marvellous elaborateness. 

I well remember, when a boy, gazing with a 
strange fascination akin to horror, at a most ex- 
traordinary pictographic work of a Mohawk or 
Muncey Indian. 

It was given to my mother, who, for some 
years before her marriage, was a mission teacher 
among the Indians. It was supposed to repre- 
sent a dream or trance into which this Indian 
fell, and in which he remained for some time. 
The first thing he did after recovering conscious- 
ness was to ask for a pen, ink and paper. He 
was unable to write, but had always been clever 
at pictographic work. He had renounced the 
paganism of his people some time before, had be- 
come a zealous Christian, and was naturally 
very anxious to see the rest of the Indians fol- 
low his example. The early missionaries did 
not mince matters in their earnest preaching. 
If there was a heaven to be gained, there was a 
hell to be shunned. And if heaven was a place 
of rare delights and pleasures, so hell was the 
region of horrors and miseries. 







(Drawing IV, page sgs) 

The Story of a Famous 
Hunter's Journey 



(Drawing III, page 2gs) 

Leaving Word at Home as to 

Direction of Journey and 

ITS Length 



The Sign Language and Pictography 295 

To the Indian converts, as well as to the 
whites of those days, these things were tremen- 
dous realities. They accepted them and believed 
them. And so this Indian-made picture, which 
my mother possessed for years, depicted the en- 
joyments and happy occupations of the saved, 
but with a vividness and variety that would sat- 
isfy the most fastidious Indian. On the other 
hand, the scenes of misery and suffering were so 
diverse and unique that Michael Angelo in his 
picture of the Last Judgment, or Dante in his 
Inferno, could have found from them additional 
subjects for brush or pen. 

But coming back from these more ambitious 
subjects which at times engrossed the attention 
and drew out the skill and ingenuity of the na- 
tive artists, we find that it was generally in con- 
nection with the ordinary routine of life that 
their pictographs, simple or elaborate, were 
made. The one given here (in drawing IV) is 
practically the history of the doings of a famous 
hunter for nine or ten months of the year : that 
is, as the Indians would put it, from the eagle 
moon, called by the Crees — Mikisew pesim — cor- 
responding to our March, when he leaves his 
wigwam home, and begins his hunting career. 
We can trace him in his various movements and 
tell where he is during each month, as well as 



296 The Battle of the Bears 

see the character of the hunting in which he is 
engaged. 

From the birch bark, on which with the pale- 
face's " talking-stick," the pen, the whole was 
drawn, the story is so intelligible to his Indian 
friends, that not a single word is necessary. 

What a benediction it would be to celebrities 
who are hunted after by interviewers if this 
plan were to become common. Fancy some 
great man, when assailed by the knights of the 
quill^ gravely taking down a roll of birch bark 
covered with hieroglyphics, gravely handing it 
over to them and sa3nng : " Gentlemen, here are 
the records of my doings, translate them as suits 
yourselves." Each reporter might honestl}' read 
as they impressed him, and thus escape the 
charge of falsification. 

For the information of our readers not as yet 
posted in Indian wood-craft and sign-reading, 
we will here give the reading, or translation, of 
this rather good specimen of Indian pic- 
tography. 

The Indian hunter leaves his wigwam in the 
Eagle moon. He travels for the first two moons 
on snow-shoes. During those two moons he 
spends his time principally on a lake, where 
we see him breaking into the little houses of the 
muskrats and spearing them. This occupies his 



The Sign Language and Pictography 297 

time until May, when, in that land, the snow 
and ice melt away. Now we see him embark- 
ing in his canoe and paddling to the side of an- 
other lake, where he finds a stream entering into 
it on which is a large beaver pond and house. 
This is worth much to him, so we see by the 
whole and half moon that he spends about six 
weeks hunting beaver in these streams. 

When the beaver season is over he starts on 
again in his canoe. He crosses the lake diago- 
nally and finds that the great river which is its 
outlet is so swift and full of rapids that he must 
make a long portage. So here we see him with 
his canoe on his head, travelling along the side 
of the dangerous river until, below the rapids or 
falls, he finds that the water is safe. The double 
dots indicate that he had to go back again, 
doubtless for his pack of beaver skins, his gun, 
and his travelling outfit. 

Again we see him in his canoe, emerging out 
of the river into a large lake. Now he is among 
the deer, one of which we see him shooting. 
While this one was killed on land doubtless he 
killed many in the water, as there they love to 
go to swim and get rid of the flies that so trouble 
them. 

Here the hunter spent six weeks. This was 
to secure enough venison which he dried, or 



298 The Battle of the Bears 

made into pemmican, on which to live while he 
should be hunting the fur-bearing animals in 
the winter. Next, we find him among the bears, 
one of which he has badly wounded with an ar- 
row and is about to kill with his spear. The 
bears must have been numerous there that 
year, as our hunter spends two moons hunting 
them. 

When his bear hunting is ended, for by this 
time those who have escaped from him are 
denned up for the winter, he makes a long 
journey far away into the forest country, where 
the rich fur-bearing animals are to be found. 
Here he builds himself a warm hunting-lodge, 
for the cold weather has now come again. This 
bitter weather is the time when the mink and 
marten, the silver fox and ermine and other val- 
uable furs are in their prime. So, to secure 
them, our hunter here lives all alone for at least 
two moons. 

The dried meat of the deer and the bears which 
he killed, with what rabbits he can snare, is all 
he has in the way of food. He is in danger of 
being killed by wolves which there abound. 
The cunning wolverines often destroy the game 
in his traps. He is exposed to many dangers, 
but he has overcome or escaped them all, and 
now, as the last thing to read, we see that he has 



The Sign Language and Pictography 299 

prepared a light, strong birch sled, and loading 
on it his furs and outfit he puts on a new pair 
of snow-shoes which he has made, and with a 
glad heart he starts off for his distant home. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 
Indian Credulity and Incredulity 

An amusing steamboat experience. Doubts as to tbe earth being 
round. Interesting experiments to overcome their incredulity. 
" All very great liars. ' ' 



XXI 

THE story-teller is very popular among 
the Indians, and most implicitly is he 
believed so long as he confines his nar- 
rative to myths and legends and tales of the 
supernatural. The most marvellous feats of 
Misha wabus, Jouske-ha, Nanahboozhoo, Hia- 
watha, and other creations of the vivid imagina- 
tion, part human and part supernatural, are all 
accepted in perfect faith. The stories of the 
Weedegoss or Windegoos cannibals, man eaters 
that can extend themselves until they are as 
high as the highest pine trees, or can squeeze 
themselves down until they are but small dwarfs 
of hideous aspect, but ever on the lookout for 
human feasts, are believed in by multitudes of 
red men. 

And yet, no people with whom we have ever 
come in contact are slower to accept the truth- 
fulness of statements made either by members 
of their own race, or of the white man, of things 
or events that they, personally, have not seen or 
comprehended. 

So it is with them in reference to many of the 
ordinary affairs of life. They commission a 

303 



304 The Battle of the Bears 

friend to transact some business at a distant 
place, or perform some work which, in their own 
mind, can be accomplished. Unforeseen diffi- 
culties arise and the work cannot be done. In- 
stead of accepting the explanation, in all proba- 
bility the Indian who requested the work will 
shrug his shoulders with contempt, and accuse 
the man, to his face, as a liar. 

I had an emphatic evidence of this Indian 
characteristic, once, in my own case. 

It was in the early days of my work among 
the Saulteaux Indians, in what was known then 
as the Hudson Bay Territories. I had gone twice 
a year to visit a band of Indians who lived some 
hundreds of miles from m}^ home. They had 
become deeply interested in the message and 
longed to have a missionary dwell among them. 
So importunate, at length, did they become, that 
one summer when I had been unable to visit 
them on account of other duties, they sent a 
deputation of several of their number to plead 
for a missionary. I met them kindly, talked 
over the matter with them, and said I would 
send on their request for a missionary to the 
mission rooms in Toronto. This I faithfully 
did, and added my own pleadings to their re- 
quest. 

But alas, there came back the cold reply, that 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 305 

there were no volunteers for such places, and if 
there had been, there was no money in the treas- 
ury with which to send them. Of course I was 
grieved at this, and felt that I could at that time 
do no more. 

The next summer we were not much surprised 
when, in a couple of large canoes, there arrived 
the same deputation with ample provision made 
to carry back with them their missionary. With 
but little delay they came into our mission home 
and at once demanded him. 

I felt the position keenly, but was helpless be- 
fore them. All that I could do was to tell these 
eager, expectant men that I had sent on their 
request and added my own to it, but the answer 
was that there were no missionaries for them. 
Looking me in the face, the principal man of the 
party, with no anger, but with deep disappoint- 
ment and a certain amount of incredulity in his 
voice, said : 

" Missionary, you tell a lie ! " 

Understanding, as I did, his feelings, I was 
neither angry nor annoyed at his accusation, but 
I was deeply humiliated, for I felt that that In- 
dian, with his strong accusation, was the mouth- 
piece of millions in darkness, accusing the Chris- 
tian Church not only of apathy and neglect, but 
of hypocrisy and untruthfulness, when, with all 



306 The Battle of the Bears 

its claims to be of God, designed for the world's 
evangelization, it dares to say, even to these poor 
Indian suppliants : *' There is no missionary 
for you." 

To save this Indian from the reaction which I 
feared would come and drive him back to the old 
ways and the spell of the conjurer, or into a state 
of perfect indifferentism, I showed him the letters 
which had come about the matter, and then I 
told him of what was being done in many other 
places, and that they must be patient and hope 
that at some time in the future, a missionary 
would be sent to them. 

But how mean and small and contemptible I 
felt in my own eyes, as I went on praising the 
church for what it was doing, in comparison with 
what I knew it might do ! May God forgive me 
and others, who, in similar circumstances, have 
been placed in such a position that we really 
found ourselves as special pleaders for the Uni- 
versal Church of Christ, when in our heart of 
hearts we felt that there was more of sham and 
hypocrisy in our words than of candid, transpar- 
ent honesty ! But this was not what I had in 
my mind when I began to write this chapter. 
The credulity and the incredulity of the Indians 
was my theme. 

So well aware are they, among themselves, of 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 307 

their inherent unwillingness to believe the 
strange and improbable, unless it is associated 
with the supernatural, that there is a great hesi- 
tancy on the part of those, who, by travelling to 
distant places or associating with white people, 
have really become possessed of information on 
new and startling subjects, to impart that knowl- 
edge to their own people on their return. They 
well know that their veracity will at once be 
questioned, and they themselves be held up as 
objects of ridicule, and this to an Indian is a bit- 
ter humiliation. 

The following incident is a good illustration. 

Many years ago I came down from Burntwood 
River, beyond Split Lake on Nelson River, with 
a number of Indians who wished to meet the late 
Dr. Punshon, Senator Macdonald and other high 
officials who Avere visiting Winnipeg, to plead 
with them for a missionary. This was long ago 
when that country was but little opened up. It 
was still the wild west of the Indian and the 
buffaloes. 

An occasional flat-bottomed steamer came 
down the river from some far away American 
towns, with freight and passengers. As my In- 
dians had never seen a steamboat, I asked per- 
mission of the captain, with whom I was well 
acquainted, to bring these big red men from the 



3o8 The Battle of the Bears 

interior to see the boat. He very cheerfully con- 
sented and said that he was going down the 
river a few miles to load up with wood, and that 
I could take them along for the trip. I had 
them all on board in good time and away we 
started. They were delighted and made some 
quaint remarks. It was easy to see that they 
were interested and were studying the boat. I 
said to them : " Use your eyes well, for this is 
a new thing to you. Here is this iskatao cheman 
(fire canoe), that moves along without oar or 
paddle or sail." 

Their quick reply was : " We have noticed 
that, and have decided that it is the current that 
is carrying us along." I threw some pieces of 
wood and bark overboard and said : 

" Look at those things and see how we are 
rapidly leaving them behind. Where is your 
current now? " Indian-like they would not be 
convinced, and answered : 

" Yes, we see that, and we have decided that 
there is a heavy undercurrent that is taking us 
on so rapidly." 

They were Indians and so I argued no more 
with them just then. We reached the landing 
place where the many cords of wood were piled, 
awaiting shipment. 

In return for their free ride I asked my men 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 309 

to help the crew in loading on the wood. With 
a rush they were off, and worked splendidly. 

I waited and watched them until the steamer 
turned round, and then, against a brisk head- 
wind and the current, began rapidly making her 
way back to Winnipeg. It was most amusing to 
study the faces of those men. They rushed from 
side to side and from stem to stern on the steam- 
boat. Then, a good deal subdued in spirit and 
now thoroughly bewildered, they were willing 
to listen to me without once contradicting. After 
showing them the engine and then the furnaces 
which, as they said, were rapidly eating up the 
wood they had helped to put on board, I took 
them to the stern and showed them the connect- 
ing bars from the engine to the paddle wheels, 
and told them it was steam that made the power 
by which we were now moving along independ- 
ent of current or wind or oar. As they now saw 
it for themselves, they were of course convinced. 

Afterwards, in conversation with them on the 
many new things they had seen, I said : 

" You will have many things to talk about 
when you get home and to tell your fathers and 
brothers and friends. And," I added, " I want 
you especially to tell them all about the iskatao 
cheman, the fire canoe." 

Quickly speaking up the oldest of them said : 



3 1 o The Battle of the Bears 

" We have decided to say nothing about the 
iskatao cheman." 

" Why ? " I asked. 

His answer was : " They will never believe 
us, but will say, ' You all very great liars.' " 

That this characteristic of doubt is strongly 
ingrained in the race was seen even after many 
of them had accepted Christianity. It lingered 
still and there were various instances where it 
showed itself, but it generally gave more amuse- 
ment than trouble. 

It was satisfactory to note that speedily, under 
Christian teaching, they gave up their belief in 
their myths and windegoos and only rarely could 
be persuaded to rehearse any of their old stories, 
once so popular and so implicitly believed, 
unless by special request or to amuse some 
interested children. 

Yet the tendency to question what seemed 
strange and improbable, even if uttered by those 
in whom they had all confidence, would occa- 
sionally crop out in ways that were as startling 
as unexpected. 

A missionary at Oxford House had had much 
success in his work among the Indians, and even 
had some so advanced that they were able to do 
good work as lay helpers and local preachers 
among their countrymen. So long as they con- 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 311 

fined their preaching and teaching to the simple 
facts of the gospel and to the story of their con- 
version and what it had been to them and others 
who had accepted it, they were on safe ground 
and most effective. But the trouble with some 
of them was that they were ambitious to launch 
out into the depths, and that they endeavored to 
clear up mysteries that had come to them, perhaps 
from the instructive sermon of the missionary. 
One native helper felt called upon, when he ad- 
dressed the same audience which had been 
spoken to by the missionary, to correct, for the 
enlightenment of the people, the mistakes of the 
white man. 

What can be more deliciously cool and amus- 
ing than the following ! 

Fancy the scene 1 A modest, little, log church 
with two or three hundred Indians reverently 
assembled for worship, and among them are 
seated the missionary and his family. The day 
is bitterly cold, but a square Carron well sup- 
plied with fuel makes everybody warm and 
comfortable. The Indian speaker is a man be- 
loved and honored for his clean life and trans- 
parent honesty. He is a great friend of the 
missionary, whom he himself adores, so much so 
that he cannot let anything pass unchallenged 
that might seem to lessen the minister's influence 



312 The Battle of the Bears 

among the people. This day it is evident that 
he is troubled and that there is a burden on his 
heart. Things have been said by the missionary 
that he cannot believe, and so he thinks the rest 
of the people believe them not, and are probably 
questioning the truthfulness of their beloved 
missionary. He has resolved to face the matter 
and get things straightened out as soon as 
possible. 

The opening part of the service is gone 
through with Indian reverence and solemnity. 
Then the text is announced. The sermon has 
an odd beginning. The speaker says : 

" Brothers, did our ears deceive us ? I fear 
not, for many of you heard as I did. Our loved 
missionary has made a great mistake, which I 
must correct. He said the world was round ! 
What an absurdity ! What a blunder ! Why, 
we all know that it is not round. It is as flat as 
the top of that big stove there before me. It 
may not be smooth, as it has its hills and moun- 
tains, its valleys and lakes, but as that big iron 
stove top, although rough and not smooth, is 
still flat, so is it with this earth. 

" The earth round ! How absurd ! If it were, 
how quickly would our beautiful Oxford Lake, 
and great Winnipeg, and even the great 
Hudson Bay, which we see when we go with 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 313 

the brigades each summer, run off and dis- 
appear ! 

" No, our loved missionary only made a mis- 
take, and so I hasten to correct it and relieve 
your minds." 

The experience of a number of officers of the 
American army after one of the periodical risings 
of the wild Sioux Indians in Dakota and Min- 
nesota, was amusing, even if not very satisfac- 
tory. After much bloodshed and trouble the 
Indians had been thrashed into subjection. To 
prevent any further outbreaks on their part, it 
was thought that the sending of a delegation of 
some of the most influential chiefs to Washing- 
ton and to other great cities, and giving them, 
by personal observation, some idea of the might 
and power and numbers of the whites, would be 
a kind of education that would show them and 
their people, to whom on their return they could 
communicate what they had seen, the utter folly 
of the Indians' thinking that they could success- 
fully contend in warfare against a people so 
numerous and powerful. 

The idea was carried out. The great chiefs 
were taken on this tour of observation which 
lasted several months. They were, of course, 
deeply impressed with what they saw, and as 
their white guides and directors, who were offi- 



314 The Battle of the Bears 

cers of the army, supposed, were treasuring up 
in their minds much to talk about when they 
returned to their brother warriors and friends in 
the northwest. 

In due time the return trip was made. They 
travelled by railroad to St. Paul. Here they 
were met and escorted by their officers and sol- 
diers, with whom they had now become great 
friends, a long distance out on the prairies. 
When the place where they were to separate 
was reached, it was decided that here, before the 
final parting between the whites and Indians, a 
formal council should be held. 

The council opened with great decorum. The 
pipe of peace went its rounds and was smoked 
by all. 

The senior officer present opened the talk. 
What he said was to this effect : 

" Now, Chiefs and Warriors ! At the ex- 
pense of the nation we have given you the treat 
of this great journey. We hope you have all 
enjoyed it and will never forget what you have 
seen and heard ! " 

A general chorus of: "How! How!" was 
the grateful response of the chiefs. 

" Now we wish you to understand that one 
reason why we took you on this long journey, 
was that when you returned you would gather 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 315 

your warriors and people around you, and tell 
them of these things that you have seen and 
heard, and warn them of the consequences which 
will follow if any of them go on the war path 
again. 

" Will you tell them that the white people 
are very numerous and powerful ? " 

" O yes, because we have seen the crowds." 

" What will your people say ? " 

" They will say that we are big liars." 

" Well, you must tell them that the white 
people have railroads and that you have trav- 
elled on them, and if they cause any more 
trouble the soldiers will come on these railroads 
as fast as the wild geese fly, to punish them. 
Will you tell them this ? " 

" Yes," glumly replied the chiefs. " But they 
will only say again that we are big liars." 

Thus it went on. Vainly the ofiicers urged 
upon these chiefs to try to impress their war- 
riors with the size of the cannon that could be 
used against them, and the multitudes of sol- 
diers who would come and punish them if they 
again rose up in warfare. 

The chiefs listened and smoked and said but 
little, and the burden of that little was : 

" Our people have not, as we have, seen these 
things, and so they will say, ' you have been to 



liars.' " 

As the council was about closing, one of tl 
chiefs, pointing to the telegraph wires strung c 
the poles near by, said to an officer : 

" What are those things for, which we ha) 
seen all over the land? " 

" Is it possible that you have not been to] 
what those are for ? " asked the officer. 

" No," replied the chief 

" Well, now, I will tell you, and I want yc 
all to listen very carefully to my words. Thoi 
are called telegraph wires, and they run, amor 
many other places, from near your reservatio: 
direct to the great Father, the President i 
Washington, and on them it is possible for tl 
man in charge to talk with the President. Ar 
he can do it so quickly that while he is at th 
end talking with a little instrument he uses, tl 
President can hear him at the other end i 
Washington. So if there is any trouble amor 
the Indians, the man can send the news so fa 
that word can come to the soldiers that very di 
to go and punish the bad Indians who were b 
ginning the trouble." 

The only answer the Indians first gave was 
look of amused incredulity. 

"Will you tell them that?" said the office 



Indian Credulity and Incredulity 317 

" No, indeed ! " was chorused by the chiefs. 

''Why not?" 

" Because they would laugh at us and say 
that we were indeed big liars. And," added 
the chiefs, " we don't believe it either, and now 
we, too, think you all very great liars ! " 



CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 

Indian Honesty or the Story of 
Koostawin 



A national characteristic. The thief despied. Honesty of the 
hunters proverbial. Game never taken. Traps reset. Dra- 
conian law. Death the old penalty for stealing. The story of 
Koostawin, the thief. 



XXII 

THE honesty of the Indians ere they are 
spoiled by contact with unprincipled 
whites, has ever been a matter that has 
attracted attention and won the admiration of 
those who have made the subject one of study 
and investigation. 

In our own long years of abode among them 
we were gratified and pleased with this admi- 
rable characteristic. Living, as we did, hun- 
dreds of miles from the nearest magistrate or 
policeman, and yet with the doors and windows 
never locked or bolted, with nothing under lock 
or key, and 3'^et never having had anything 
worth a shilling stolen from us, was pretty con- 
clusive evidence of the honesty of the people of 
an Indian village of over a thousand inhab- 
itants. 

When among them, I succeeded in making a 
fairly good garden, in which I raised, among 
other things, some fine turnips and carrots. 
These the Indian boys soon learned to like to 
eat even in their raw state, as much as a white 
boy with a good appetite enjoys an apple or an 
orange. The fence surrounding the garden was 

321 



322 The Battle of the Bears 

made of some slim poplar poles, yet the boys who 
could, without touching a rail, easily jump over 
that fence, were never known to touch a thing 
in the garden without permission. Needless to 
say that most of my turnips and carrots went to 
the boys and the girls, for it was a pleasure to give 
to such honest children what they, in their of- 
ten half-starved lives, so dearly loved. 

Once when travelling with a party of my own 
Indians, we reached the settlement of another 
tribe and camped near a trail, along which 
many Indians unknown to us were continually 
passing. My men were possessed of some very 
valuable articles of apparel, beautifully worked 
in beads and silk. Noticing the careless way in 
which they were leaving their much prized ar- 
ticles lying around, I said : " Men, do be more 
careful of these valuable things of yours, or you 
will surely have them stolen." 

Fancy my feelings, when the principal owner 
quickly spoke up and said : — 

" O there is not the slightest danger. You 
are the only white man within sixty miles of 
us!" 

An officer of the Mounted Police reported 
that when escorting a supply of provisions to a 
remote station, a large side of bacon slipped off 
from the pack on the back of a horse. As it 



The Story of Koostawin 323 

was near night when the loss was discovered and 
there Avas but little possibility of finding the ar- 
ticle in the darkness, it was decided to push on 
and not try to regain it. To the great surprise 
of the officer, the next day an Indian appeared 
with the missing bacon. He had found it and 
had hurried over thirty miles to restore it to its 
owners. 

An Indian guide once asked a white gentle- 
man for some tobacco. The gentleman, who 
had the habit of carrying his finely cut up to- 
bacco in his pocket, took out a large handful 
and gave it to him. Soon after the Indian re- 
turned and handed him some small pieces of 
silver, saying that he had found them in the to- 
bacco. 

The white man, much surprised at his honesty, 
said : — 

" Why did you not keep the money ? no one 
would have known anything about it ! " 

The Indian drew himself up and answered : — 

" Indian ask white man for tobacco and get 
it. White man give Indian money by mistake. 
If Indian keep that money, he impose on his 
friend. He no do that, which would have been 
meaner than to steal, which Indian never do." 

It is to be regretted that many of the Indians, 
while learning from civilization much of value 



324 The Battle of the Bears 

to them, have also contracted some of the weak- 
nesses and sins of the worst of the white race 
and have lost that splendid, almost universal, 
record for honesty which they once held. It 
is to be deeply regretted that many of them 
have become dishonest and the question natu- 
rally arises : why should it have become so? 

At the many flourishing missions there are 
still the same high ideals and the same honesty 
of life among the great majority of red men. 
Why, then, they are not all honest, as they were 
once believed so universally to be, is an inter- 
esting study and one which we think admits of 
a clear explanation. Those not under the kindly 
education of Christian teaching, but who are led 
into evil by their unfavorable surroundings, fall 
into habits of dishonesty as well as into other 
sins, because of the absence of certain restraints 
under which they were obliged to live when in 
their former tribal relationship as members of 
Indian communities. While, apparently, there 
was not much semblance of law, and some of 
the chiefs did not seem to have much influence, 
yet there were some unwritten laws which were 
universally known, and the punishment for the 
breaking of which was so relentless and terrible 
that all were ever on their guard to escape from 
even being suspected of transgression. To rob a 



The Story of Koostawin 325 

hostile warrior of his horse, or even to take his 
scalp, was ever considered the correct thing to 
do, but to steal anything from one's own tribe, 
or from a tribe with which there was no quarrel, 
met with the antipathy and disgust of fellow 
warriors and was followed by the prompt and 
merciless punishment of the perpetrator of the 
deed. 

The following interesting story of the sudden 
and, to many, the mysterious death of Koosta- 
win, will throw a good deal of light on this in- 
teresting phase of Indian character. 

Koostawin came out from the Indian Reserve 
in the Red River country, the year after the 
great flood, which is still talked about, although 
it occurred about the middle of the last century. 
The great Red River of the North so overflowed 
its banks that the waters rolled over the great 
prairies on either side like inland seas. The 
homesteads of many of the Selkirk settlers were 
swept away. Houses, barns, stables, haystacks 
were lifted by the remorseless, rising waters, and 
floated down and disappeared in the great Lake 
Winnipeg. 

The Indian Reserve, near the mouth of the 
great river, if possible suffered more than did the 
settlements of the whites farther up the stream. 

So discouraged and disheartened were many 



326 The Battle of the Bears 

of the Indians at the loss of their farming outfit, 
that they resolved to give up their attempts at 
trying the white man's way of making a living 
by farming, and to go north, and again, as did 
their fathers, live by hunting and fishing. 

Quite a number of families went as far north 
as Norway House. The story of their losses by 
the great flood had preceded them, so they were 
welcomed by the red men of that north country, 
who were members of the same tribe. 

They came poor and destitute, but no Indian 
starves among his own people so long as there is 
any food in the community. As soon as possi- 
ble they obtained twine from the fur traders, 
and without delay the nimble fingers of the in- 
dustrious women wove it into the nets for the 
purpose of securing supplies of the savory white 
fish, which then abounded there. Traps were 
also secured in as great numbers as possible, and 
the old, established hunters, with the traditional 
nobleness of the true red man, generously divided 
their hunting grounds with the newcomers. 

For a time all went well. When success at- 
tended the huntings of the newcomers, and they 
returned to the village laden down with their 
packs of beaver, otter, mink and bearskins, there 
was general rejoicing at the good luck that was 
attending their efforts. The exchange of these 



The Story of Koostawin 327 

rich furs for the goods of the fur traders soon be- 
gan to bring comfort and happiness to those who 
had been reduced to absolute want by the great 
flood. Others, hearing of their success, followed 
them, and so for some years there were accessions 
to their numbers. 

Then trouble began. The majority of the peo- 
ple knew not what it was, and yet all felt that 
there was something strange and mysterious, like 
a miasma, in the air. Frequent councils were 
being held. The hearty good-will and open 
candor that had so long obtained among them, 
in some mysterious way changed into reserve, 
and in some cases into actual suspicion. Yet 
nothing was openly charged against any one, for 
Indians are men of few words and impassive de- 
meanor. 

Koostawin was a big, stalwart Indian. He 
had come out as one of the first company that 
had suffered by the flood. He told a pitiable 
story, and so was well helped by the northern 
red men. But they soon got tired of helping 
him, for he was lazy. Even when they loaned 
him nets, he preferred lounging and smoking in 
their wigwams and eating the fish and game they 
caught, rather than going out hunting and fish- 
ing for himself. 

Indians are very patient and indulgent, so 



328 The Battle of the Bears 

they put up Avith the laziness of Koostawin for 
a long time. When they did speak, it was in a 
way that had but one meaning. Then a great 
change took place in him. He seemed at once 
to shake off his indolence, and began to work 
most industriously. First of all he built him- 
self a wigwam. This he placed several hundreds 
of yards away from his nearest neighbor. He 
then caught for himself quite a supply of white 
fish, which he piled up on a staging above the 
reach of wild thievish huskie dogs. These fish 
soon froze so solid that they kept fresh and good 
for months. 

Koostawin lived all alone. His wife had left 
him before he came out from Red River, because 
of his laziness and other faults which she said he 
had, but which she, as his wife, would not dis- 
close. 

When the lakes and rivers were all frozen over, 
and the fishing had ended, on account of the 
thickness of the ice, then the huntings for the 
rich fur-bearing animals began. 

Koostawin was observed to go away into the 
deep forests and be gone for days. Yet he was 
never seen to have any traps with him, he was 
seen to carry only his gun. As he very seldom 
returned without bringing back some beautiful 
otters, or mink, or other rich furs, the Indians 



The Story of Koostawin 329 

said among themselves that Koostawin must be 
very clever in making deadfalls and snares, for 
it was noticed at the Trading Post, where he ex- 
changed his furs for goods, that none of them 
were injured by either ball or shot. So it was 
evident that he had not used his gun in securing 
them. 

The laws of the Indians in reference to their 
hunting-grounds are well understood. No true 
Indian would ever think of appropriating the 
catch of another. If, in going to his own hunt- 
ing-grounds, he has to pass by the traps of an- 
other Indian, he would never think of carrying 
away any animal he might see in those traps, 
but the well-understood law is, that it is his duty 
to take the animal out of the trap, for fear it 
might be destroyed by wolverines. He is ex- 
pected to hang it up in plain sight, and in a 
manner that will render it secure from any 
prowling animals. Then, in addition, he is ex- 
pected to reset the trap, even if he has to use 
bait from his own, it may be, very limited sup- 
ply. For doing this all the reward he expects 
is that perhaps at some time in the future, a 
hunter passing near one of his traps, in which a 
valuable animal is caught, will do the same thing 
for him. 

This has been the custom ingrained into the 



330 The Battle of the Bears 

very life of these northern Indians. But now 
they are troubled, for a spirit of suspicion and 
unrest is in the air. 

It is hard work, for their nature is reserved as 
we have mentioned, to get anybody to talk. The 
chief, at length coming from council, mentions 
the matter to the missionary, and alone with him 
we listen, as with bated breath he reveals to us 
what is the cause of the disquietude, which gives 
him much sorrow. 

Things that have been unknown for many 
winters are occurring. Hunters are telling him 
of suspicious footsteps around their traps, and 
evidences that animals caught have been taken 
out of them, and that neither by wolf nor wol- 
verine. Traps have even been found reset, with 
the fur of some animal attached to the teeth. 

Others have reports, equally convincing, that 
their traps have been interfered with, and that in 
their resetting there is such an absence of the 
usual cleverness characterizing the experienced 
hunter, that it is evident some one unaccustomed 
to this kind of hunting is at work. 

Matters reach a climax when an experienced 
hunter comes in with the story that a silver fox 
with only three feet, has been taken out of his 
trap. Here we see the powers of observation that 
these children of nature possess. This hunter 



The Story of Koostawin 331 

had before this seen by the impression left by 
the trail of a fox, that he had lost a foot. In 
following up the trail, he found that the animal 
had been caught in one of his traps. But when 
he arrived there the captured animal was no- 
where to be seen. However, some large snow- 
shoe tracks told the tale that a man had been 
there and that he had removed the fox and reset 
the trap, while the hairs on the teeth of the trap 
told that it was a silver fox of great value. 

Koostawin is now put under the eyes of some 
alert watchers, and by them he is observed to 
sell to the fur traders a very valuable silver fox 
skin, and the alert eyes of the Indians notice 
the absence in the skin of one of the legs. So 
valuable is this fur that every bit, even down to 
the toes, is saved. 

Another secret council is held. Prudent and 
cautious are the Indians, and so desirous are they 
not to blame any one until they are absolutely 
sure of his guilt, because the punishment that 
will follow will be swift and complete, they re- 
solve to withhold their vengeance and get addi- 
tional proof. 

So out from that midnight council go some of 
the aged men and arouse from their slumbers a 
number of trusted young hunters of the village. 
What the ceremony was through which they were 



332 The Battle of the Bears 

put, we never learned, but this we did discover, 
they were divided into small groups and to them 
was committed the sternest of orders to keep 
Koostawin under their surveillance. They were 
to know without a break, positively, where he 
was every hour of the day and night. And yet 
they were not to let him get the slightest hint 
that he was being watched, or even suspected of 
any wrong-doing. 

Remembering that Koostawin was himself a 
cunning Indian, suspicious and wary on account 
of his wrong-doings, we see this was no easy 
matter. 

However, they succeeded at length in estab- 
lishing his guilt, although it was not for some 
time, as the proceeds of the sale of the silver fox 
skin, furnished him Avith supplies that lasted 
him for weeks. He was noticed one stormy 
night, to steal quietly away from his wigwam 
and disappear in the dark forest. Noiselessly 
was he followed, and that in a way that would 
have been utterl^^ impossible on the part of a 
white man. During the whole of the day fol- 
lowing watchers were observing his movements 
as he hurried along different hunter's trails, 
hoping that the falling snow would cover up his 
tracks. He was fairly successful in his dishon- 
est work, and several valuable animals were 



The Story of Koostawin 333 

taken from different traps. Keen eyes saw each 
capture, and also observed the hurried way in 
which he reset the traps, despoiled of their 
victims. 

Not the slightest effort was made to arrest him 
in his dishonest work. Indians, in their native 
state, did not punish in that way. Koostawin 
was not even disturbed on his return journey. 
He leisurely sauntered into his wigwam, appar- 
ently unnoticed. But his doom was sealed. 
That night another council was held and the re- 
ports of the watchers were received. Then they 
were dismissed, as their work was done. 

At midnight, or after, a secret council, consist- 
ing only of the chiefs and the old men, who had 
in their hands the chief responsibility of the 
tribe, was held. To it was called the dreaded 
medicine man of the tribe. 

Few and emphatic were the commands given 
to him. He listened in silence and then noise- 
lessly stole away. 

How he did his deadly work with the mys- 
terious poisons which those old fellows had the 
secret of making I know not. But this I do 
know, that one day the chief came to my house 
and casuall}?" remarked that there was a dead 
man lying out in a wigwam all by himself, and 
as I was anxious that all the dead should be 



334 The Battle of the Bears 

buried perhaps I had better go and see about the 
burying of that one. 

I went and found a corpse ah^eady turning 
black under the effects of the terrible poison. 
As I examined it I found it was the body of 
Koostawin. 

From that time on, for years, I never heard 
even a suspicion of any Indian's traps being 
robbed. Stern justice had effectually done its 
work. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 

The Indian's Future and the White 
Man's Duty 

Early missions among the Indians. Why their success has been so 
limited. The Christianity and civilization that prevail. Their 
future destiny. Absorption into the great national life. The 
imperative duty of the white man. 



XXIII 

THE recital of missionary work among 
the Indians since Oliver Cromwell gave 
his subscription " for the propagation of 
the gospel among the aboriginal races of 
America " forms one of the most interesting and 
romantic, and yet one of the most humiliating 
and unsatisfactory chapters in the history of 
missions. 

From the first century after the discovery of 
this continent, the aboriginal races of America, 
the Indians, have been to a more or less extent 
the object of missionary efforts. The Spaniards 
began their missionary work in Florida in 1566, 
in New Mexico in 1597, and in California in 
1697. John Eliot's great work among the 
Indians of New England began in 1646. The 
Roman Catholic missions in Canada began about 
1613, although Paul LaJeune, the first Jesuit 
leader, did not reach the New World until 1632, 
when that Order supplanted the Recollet 
Fathers who had already begun the work. 

Of the zeal and devotion of those early mis- 
sionaries, it is not our purpose here to write. 

337 



338 The Battle of the Bears 

Suffice to say that both among Catholic and 
Protestant missions, the wide world over, there 
have been given no greater zeal and devotion to 
the work ; there have been no greater sacrifices 
made, no more persistent efforts put forth, both 
to Christianize and to civilize savages, than have 
been witnessed in the work amongst the Ameri- 
can Indians. And yet we have to admit that, 
considering all the lives that have been sacri- 
ficed, the sufferings and hardships involved and 
the vast expense incurred, the results that are 
seen do not compare favorably with what may 
be seen in many other mission fields. Humili- 
ating as this may be, there are reasons to account 
for it. The vastness of the country, the sparse- 
ness of the population, the lack of assimilation 
among many tribes, the hostility and inbred 
contempt they had for each other, as well as the 
multiplicity and variety of their languages, and 
their migratory lives, were all antagonistic to 
missionary success and detrimental to the es- 
tablishment of settled civilized communities 
amongst them. Then there was that marked 
unsusceptibility, if not repugnance, of the red 
Indian, to the customs and habits of civilized 
life. His aversion to change a life which seemed 
to him sufficient, and the enjoyment and ex- 
citement of which was satisfying and congenial 



The Indian's Future 339 

to his proud, independent spirit, was very great. 
Indians have never, without reluctance, accepted 
the white man's civilization. This can hardly 
be wondered at, when we remember that the 
phases of it which were first presented to them 
were not of a very high type. The " palefaces " 
whom the Indians generally first met, were 
loaded down with " fire-water " and a greed for 
gain. By them the Indians were first made 
drunk and then swindled and robbed, first of 
their furs and then of their lands. Is it any 
wonder that when they " came to themselves," 
they were chary about accepting such a civiliza- 
tion ? 

The Indians, as distinct nationalities, are 
dying out ; the remnants of the great tribes are 
rapidly becoming absorbed in the national life 
of the dominant white man. This is so evident 
that there is but little prospect of any consider- 
able number of Indians long remaining in dis- 
tinctly religious communities, except, as in the 
far north, where there is nothing to cause white 
men in large numbers to settle among or around 
them. 

With their acquisition of the English lan- 
guage and their instruction in religious and 
secular knowledge, it will soon be better for 
them and for the national life of the country. 



340 The Battle of the Bears 

that they be placed on the footing of all other 
citizens. There are now no reasons why they 
should be treated as a distinct people. 

A nation that has lost its heart is doomed. 
The Indians have now no national aspirations. 
No Tecumseh, with his dreams of a great Indian 
confederacy, will ever again arise. The thought- 
ful Indian now sees that his only chance of hap- 
piness and promotion is to go on the white 
man's trail. To help him on that trail, to see 
that all monies due him for land surrendered in 
the past, and all that may be his right, by 
treaties made, shall be paid him in a way that 
will be to his advantage, is a sacred trust that 
must be honestly carried out. 

To help him to become a worthy citizen of 
the land, as conditions now are, is our duty. 
His past is shrouded in gloom and disaster. 
Let us light up for him and his children, a 
future ; one equal to that which we offer to the 
immigrant from foreign lands, and similar to 
that which we desire for ourselves. 

And yet we must not go too fast, or be easily 
discouraged at the difficulties. It has taken the 
white man long centuries to reach the position 
he now occupies, so let us be patient with the 
Indian and his tardy acceptance of our civiliza- 
tion. The ultimate absorption is sure to come, 



The Indian's Future 



341 



but before that day arrives, there is much for us 
to do. Our Indian missions must be well sus- 
tained and the schools must be efficiently 
equipped. The churches and governments in- 
terested must cooperate, and, thus being looked 
after, the civilization of the red man will be ac- 
complished. Then, and only then, to the rem- 
nants of the once great peoples that lived on the 
American continent, there will, in a measure, 
be repaid the heavy debt we are under to a 
noble but unfortunate race, who in the past have 
suffered so largely at our hands. 




*'jli 22 1907 



